Amazed and terror stricken everybody cowered or ran to cover under
stress of Cole’s surprising growth. Upon the floor or in the lobbies
his will soon came to resolving their actions, and without questioning
motives or denying the inspiration every man not in sympathy with
stagnation found himself unknowingly and irrevocably bound to a single
dictation.
The division seemed fairly made; with few exceptions the hopeful,
progressive whites were rallied and driven as only progress demands.
The natives still groped in darkness. Their Messiah did not materialize.
From behind an abandoned throne the queen feebly protested, but
Cole read the new declaration aloud from the court house steps, and
without a dissenting voice (none being permitted such, except he swore
allegiance to the new regime) was elected president, and Young turned
his attention to larger doings.
“This new Fourth of July only marks the beginning of my career,” said
he, earnestly but discreetly, to Norton, a few days after the date of
their proclaimed, independence.
They were sitting on the upper veranda, at the big hotel where Norton
lived and chose to entertain. The deposed Royal Band occupied a stand
in the foreground--they were now glad of a living and played with
energy, but the melody of an unforgotten past ladened each strain with
yearnings that reached and touched the heart cords of defeated and
victorious alike.
“I wish the management would dispense with that out-of-date music,”
replied Norton, purposely ignoring Young’s remark; “I hate bygones, and
these poor Hawaiians rouse unpleasant memories.”
“You are too hard, altogether, Norton,” remarked Young, concernedly.
“Give them a chance--they are but finding their level.”
“General, have you forgotten? It is ‘Martha’ you are addressing.”
“Oh, yes; excuse me; ‘Martha’ it is, as promised. Well Martha, as I was
saying, these people must live;--there is no occasion, that I know of,
for their extermination;--and, as they prove their fitness, I have a
mind to take them over.”
“Kaiuolani, as well?” ventured Norton, facetiously.
“Bender shall attend to her--if he succeeds in escaping me: I hear he
is leaving on the next steamer.”
Norton made no reply, though Young, in a polite manner, stared her
fairly out of countenance. He wanted Bender rid of, and knew of no
better or swifter means than permitting or inducing a voluntary or
devised going abroad. Once out, he himself should take care to see that
he did not soon return, if at all: Kaiuolani would not; she had no
reason for the doing of so rash a thing.
Presently a messenger ran up and, saluting, said:
“His excellency, the president, desires your presence at the mansion.”
“Tell Cole that I shall be at army headquarters within a short
half-hour.”
“I may as well have it out with him, now,” said Young, to Norton,
immediately the messenger had gone.
Norton again denied him the satisfaction of a reply. Possibly she may
have expected her turn to come next, but if so was most agreeably
disappointed; for, admonishing a strict censorship over the press,
and hinting the possibility of a speedy marriage between Wayntro and
Uena-O-Zan, he arose and bade her a hasty good-afternoon.
The distance from the hotel was not great and Young chose to walk, as
he was want to do always, with head down, when alone and burdened with
thought.
Presently while rounding a deserted corner, about midway thence, the
crack of a rifle startled him into consciousness.
The bullet barely grazed his head, and Young dropped as if dead.
Lying there, unarmed, the suspense drove hard upon him his folly. The
ruse, however, availed him, and at the sound of retreating footsteps
in the nearby brush the thoroughly frightened general scrambled to his
feet and proceeding without further hindrance or harm toward the armory
marvelled the experience.
There he found Cole, accompanied by Gutenborj, impatiently waiting.
“What is the meaning of your reply, to a president’s message?” demanded
his excellency, hotly.
“It means that hereafter Cole seeks Young, I take it, upon
reflection--are you agreed: do you understand, Mr. President?”
“That is, evidently, your interpretation; but, is it right, is it
politic?”
“Under the circumstances, yes.”
“Is our republic different from any other--the United States for
instance?”
“I hadn’t stopped to think of that: this one, however, is modeled after
a pattern strictly mine--I am not particularly interested in the United
States, that I know of.”
Cole’s spirit sank. He thought of the army--their government’s only
hope--and of how apparently every available recruit had hurried to
enlist, and now stood ready and eager to do a risen comrade’s bidding.
The very consciousness of Young’s tactics and his own feeble recourse
drove cold the thought. Would or could the world learn to accept
diplomacy and denounce the brutal exigencies of war? Gutenborj’s frozen
countenance sufficed. Man must regenerate. Till then, the cord is
broken.
They sat in silence. No one dared answer. Not men, but ambitions were
at stake. Young resumed:
“I grant we are only human, therefore let reason guide, if the will
move us. You, gentlemen, each one of you, thoroughly representative,
have your aims: I have mine. Who shall determine the right?”
“God,” said Cole, reverently.
“And I shall endeavor to gain His decision: the army is at call,--I
have no further need in that respect,--but I would have two first class
assistants. Are you prepared?”
“For what?” asked Cole, interestedly.
“The building of empire.”
“Where?”
“Here, in Polynesia.”
“But this is a republic?”
“And but the means to an end--as all republics are,” replied Young,
with lighter heart.
“Good boy!” shouted Gutenborj, springing to his feet, enthusiastically.
“I always believed you should come to some great end. Where do I stand?”
“On the right; I must have funds, first of all: next, men. Cole is
left--lieutenant.”
“Truly said, and--accepted.”
“You shall sit with the gods, for as men sacrifice they reap.”
Here were three men planning the destinies of a nation,--of nations,
as time should prove,--two of whom did as one willed. They were but
flesh and blood,--as others are,--of about the same stature, mentally
and morally. Born of conventional parentage, bred in the belief that
all men are equal, inspired with notions of progress, they had in
some unaccountable way converged at a common point, under favorable
auspices. What should we call it?
Young believed that individual will power were enough to raise
every man to any height--as measured by standards proportionately
co-ordinating in accidental opportunity.
The world seemed good to live in, a prison had taught him severely the
lesson of conscience, and with no other fear than failure he would
drive hard the limit of a self-provisioned endurance.
The light that radiated round his little sphere served truly as a
beacon at night.
But day dawned.
In America, where men’s hearts aimed at liberty,--the master that heeds
no other god than truth,--a force already builded, created opportunity,
and willed not at all beyond the ken of presidents or leaders.
Kaiuolani saw more and knew better than Young verily imagined.