Everywhere throughout America men’s blood ran hot. It mattered not
that the rising furor’s inception lay grovelling in fraud and deceit:
whether the constitution forbade expansion or not. The cause quickly
lost itself in the effect wrought, and men rallied to save their flag
discredit.
What cared they for statutes, where law is no more or other than
crystallized sentiment? How restrained when executives are made not
born? When, where, and why break the divining wand of aggressive
betterment? No; all the presidents, the constitutions, and the
traditions of humankind or divinity could nor would restrain, if widen,
one whit the bounds of collective regeneration.
The newspapers had stirred public conscience to such degree that of
universal accord the nation rose to defend its position, no matter
what the charge. With no thought at first of planting authority beyond
their own shores, whisperings to the contrary at last gained credence,
openly invited support. The big throbbing heart of untried America had
gone farther than they would or knew; in denying the accepted right of
inheritance elsewhere, they established the principle of progression
at home. The emipre, risen, would not down; spontaneously reproduced
itself in the quickening mold of a larger if inopportune decay.
The president angered at the boldness, as he termed it, of public
presumption. He had been elected to do their thinking, inaugurate
public weal, and frame the nation’s policy. What of accident and the
ballot he believed his tenure, however disposed or reigned, no less
than divine.
“Stop this babble about Hawaii,” roared he, to his ardently chosen but
individually politic secretary of state, Arthur F. Doolittle, directly
Langdon’s official report and personal advice had reached its utmost
destination.
“It is possible to control Langdon, but how about these newspapers? The
people will read, you know, once they can.”
“And vote--as privileged, I vow. Thanks to superior wisdom, that man
Jefferson, we hear about, was throttled at the very outset of sanity.
Let the mob howl, if it will; but, bear in mind, declarations do not
constitute law: no more is this republic a democracy! I would have you
bear in mind that rabbling ends and government begins at the ballot
box, my good secretary. I am president. So take down the flag and
return those marines; we may have need for them at home, before another
election survives--the press is damnable, but there’s a remedy.”
The news strange to say once more reached Honolulu in advance of
orders. Whichever way their resolute intermeddler turned, his
intentions, however well guarded, seemed certain of anticipation;
particularly where least expected or desired: thinking ones gathered
round the apparently despised provisional government and made ready
for a most blunderingly foreshadowed scene, while mistaken zeal and
overwrought enthusiasm flamed afresh all patriotic Hawaii.
The queen stubbornly awakened, and Cole bided calmly striven
opportunity.
On the Progressionist side a certain kind of forceful gloom verily
worked toward a deeply conscious preparation. On the other hand an airy
delight in freedom’s humbler compensation carried its unsuspecting
possessors hard over against the border line between feigned confidence
and seasonable vigilance.
Cold necessity revealed time’s continuous ebb.
“Would you of your own free will condemn these men to die?” asked
Langdon, indifferently, in a last considerate attempt to gain the
queen’s clemency.
The great woman’s eyes dimmed, while her heart throbbed and voice
failed. A will stronger than hers, a duty higher than man’s, and a
being not of the flesh answered:
“Yes.”
“Then devise the means; ordinary mortals are not privileged as gods,
nor shall they at this day and under my nose presume to do the devil’s
own work. Please pardon the expression, my good lady; anything less
emphatic, in my humble estimation, should certainly sound profane.”
Liliuokolani laughed a low guttural laugh, and turning to her
compatriots invited acclamation, none the wiser of apparent defeat. She
and not mortality had in her estimation triumphed, for in a land where
patriotism heeds no loftier aim than personal content, a thing promised
is as good as gained. That there is no end to ambition’s tempting
grasp, she and her kind had not the temerity to comprehend.
The time had been set. America’s emblem must be disgraced: right
re-establish their own.
The day revealed a glorious aspect to those privileged with
anticipation; the sun rose big and red in its accustomed place; not a
cloud overhung the heavens; songs of joy wafted all around; the hush
of night had left spread its own malignant germs, but the biddings and
reliance of day looked up toward the promise of warmth and expectancy,
with no thought of the mists and stagnation underhanging; where lurked
and sloughed pregnant quagmires of despair.
Liliuokolani prayed that morning for the president and all others in
authority. From her lips the word spread till low gratitude had stilled
the half-roused nobler sentiment of yesterday. These people were born
to do homage, and a filled cup served best their need.
From every part of the Islands they came, some blessed perchance with
a little more than others, but all above want and none sunken to the
declining level of a scrambled rectitude. Old rites were revived and
new ones devised. Here a gorgeous procession did obsequies, as they
presumed, to a dead and all but forgotten consciousness; some encircled
the palace and there sang songs or strewed flowers; vast throngs of the
more curious, but silenced, belabored hard this or that vantage point
on the streets and avenues leading toward the flagstaff, but none felt
or knew the significance of that they beheld.
The growing, seething, listless crown gorged indulgently upon
disordered content.
A handful of whites marched down through the salf-making rent in the
jumbled ranks. These bore arms reversed; they would not disobey, though
a charge filled each upturned gun: halting, and awaiting the scene
that strong hearts humbly grieved, their heads uncovered and hands
ready, a--courier rushed forward, the bugle sounded and a tumultuous
noise rent the air; the mob had given vent to its only worth, and
if ever might made right or an order lost its bearing those sturdy
patriots in the face of that flag wrought a noble deed.
Far away, at Kanai, whence he had been spirited, the better to nurse
a bleeding wound and revive an endangered courage, Aokahameha lay
low with mending. A loved one’s father, prince David, and Bender her
accomplice, parleyed at one side the big lodge where she herself had
romped and grown to maidenhood. The warmed winds from over the desert
sands and off the tumbling waters in front lolled and soothed him into
dreaming. Ihoas sat tenderly by.
“The gods be praised, for the queen is restored,” said he, fully
looking the conscious princess inquiringly in the face.
“Yes; we owe much to providence,” replied she, evasively.
“No, no, Ihoas; tell me, are my words but mockery?” cried he, vainly
attempting to rise from the pillow at his head.
“There, now; you must not take on so; your part is done--well; the
queen shall yet tell you as much with her own lips,” urged the
princess, apprehensive, but knowing.
“I did ignobly. Let it stand that Aokahameha sacrificed honor,
intelligence, everything, to pander hopelessly: let me suffer like the
traitor that I am; Ihoas deserves a better love.”
Sinking back again in bed, the big man’s eyes dulled with far-off,
unsatisfied comprehension. Presently Ihoas, clasping gently his hand
and bending over in silence, heard him say, distinctly:
“Elmsford is Ihoas’s; his eyes are open; Americans cannot be trusted.”
Aokahameha’s one prediction, upon that occasion, had sooner proven
true, though to him it remained unverified.
In the confusion resulting from the president’s well exposed, but
half enforced orders Gutenborj deemed it advisable, in consequence of
no other prospect, to place himself directly upon the queen’s side.
Kaiuolani had returned and bore the best of assurances: the hardfisted
planter’s interest above all else must be conserved, hence Young
pressed into a new leadership and the crown princess reconciled to an
old love; neither of which seemed a difficult undertaking in view of
the queen’s ready acquiescence and his own hitherto untouched resources.
Thus it was that Floyd Young had found it possible within short notice
to raise and equip for hasty service a new troop of five hundred men.
Isaacs had been stripped of everything to effect the other’s release,
and now lay bound and gagged by the marines as a convenient excuse, if
needed, for delaying an idly questioned departure. Norton waxed more
anxious than ever. The one that she cared for openly denied an only
rival, and had he not barely escaped her?
“It is fortunate that I once befriended her royal highness,” said
Norton, to herself, with ecstacy, after a first personally requested
meeting with the planter king. “Me? A go-between? What luck!”
In the break, occasioned for the most part by Gutenborj’s advice
against Norton, Young had in his own mind completely relegated the once
duly heeded philosopher. That he, in his present attitude,--cringing
and childlike,--could personally render effective aid to either the
queen or the opposition seemed a thing utterly behind the trend of
latter requisition. Why not take advantage of a misjudged proffer to
use his fortune?
“Press him as needs be, and I’ll promise----”
“Your hand and----oh Floyd; how I have waited and tried for this!”
“I was about to say: an army. That is the first requisite. All
delectation hinges upon accomplishment. Force of some kind or manner
lies behind every privilege. You have earned the highest felicities at
my disposal; but let me prove in truth a hand before you would deign
accept on trial the heart.”
Norton blushed; not with disappointment, but at the price exacted of
an under-help. Man might reason himself superior, in fact make himself
such, but sooner or later fate must resolve the equalities of patient
endeavor.
“I’ll build, encourage, and cherish him: Kaiuolani could but hate,
retard, and destroy; she is impolitic, and policy lies at the
foundation of all worldly appreciation: for all we know, or would, the
heavens measure recognition with the same yardstick used on earth.
Up and at it, then, with the grace of a kind,” said she, to herself,
bidding Young attend his part; as there should be no failing of funds
so long as Gutenborj reasoned; or, thought she, “obstacle in the way
of my own attainment if Kaiuolani be the only rival.”
The plan worked admirably, as they all thought, though the princess
puzzled her inquisitor severely and provoked Gutenborj not a little
from the first attempt hence.
“I love you, aunty, and am ready to die, if needs be, for you; but
please remember that my heart is my own and that it will be not at all
unlike me to choose the manner of sacrifice.”
“What do you mean, child?” queried the queen, much disturbed.
“Give me the command of this proposed soldiery, and I shall put an end
to strife hereabouts. Now, then; you have my ultimatum; what is your
pleasure?” replied the princess, as Gutenborj emerged clandestinely
from an adjoining room.
“Nonsense! Woman can better rock the cradle,” proffered he, coming
forward vehemently.
“Thanks. Others before you have said as much, but I still have a
chance. Bender----”
“Kaiuolani!” interceded the good queen, unable longer to contemplate
further possibilities.
“Very well,” ejaculated Gutenborj. “But, I might say--if it can in any
manner serve as an encouragement to you--that Young is in command and
already holds, beyond dislodgment, the state house and all there is in
it: possession is nine points in law, and sanity compels your humble
servant to get and keep in line with order, every time, if I know
myself, my good lady, so don’t count on me.”
Kaiuolani refused longer to parley, and politely departing from the
palace made haste to see and advise the still loyal, if indignant
Elmsford.
“I am departing for America, on to-day’s outgoing steamer,” said she,
after a little, wholly convinced. “Please see Ihoas, and advise her of
my intentions and sympathy.”