II.

The sudden revelation that Elk MacNair was very rich had, on the

whole, a depressing effect. Kate Dunlevy, who had expected to marry

purely for love, found with a little chagrin that she was also

marrying for money. The Judge was led to remark upon the curiosities

of a speculative age and a fluctuating currency, and said he longed

for the solid times of hard coin, cheap prices, easy stages, and a

Jeffersonian republic. As for Jabel Blake, he was too late for that

day to deposit his bonds at the Treasury and obtain the currency for

the Ross Valley bank, so he went sauntering around the city, grim as a

defeated office-seeker.

The brothers also made some calls, and Arthur MacNair was puzzled and

at the same time pleased, to find that his dashing junior knew

everybody, had something to chat about with innumerable strangers or

members, and was freely admitted to any public office he desired. They

came home at twilight, quite fatigued, and found Jabel Blake lying on

a bed in the inner chamber, fast asleep.

"Dreaming of his bank!" said Elk MacNair; "what a metallic soul must

Jabel's be! His very voice rattles like money. His features are cut

hard as a face on a coin."

"Jabel has good points, Elk," said the Congressman; "if you can

understand the passion of the town builder you can apprehend him. He

has devoted his life to Ross Valley, and the only text of Scripture he

finds it hard to understand is, that he who ruleth his soul is greater

than he who buildeth a city."

The two brothers sat together in the main room; the day, at the

windows, was growing grayer, and they were silent for a while.

The face of Elk MacNair had been growing long during the whole

afternoon, but with an assumed gayety he had sought to make the hours

pass pleasantly, and when his thoughtful and modest brother endeavored

to argue with him that his legal labors were wearing him out, Elk

MacNair turned the conversation off in a cheerful way by saying:

"Arthur, I have arranged that you shall have the chairmanship of a

first-rate committee."

"How arranged it?"

"Oh, these things can be managed, you know. Every good position in

Washington has to be begged for, or brought about by strategic

approaches. I know the Speaker and the Speaker's friends below him,

and the old chairman of the committee where I wish you to be; and,

among us all, you have obtained the rare distinction, for a new

member, of going to the head of one of the best of the second-class

committees."

"I do not like this, Elk," said Arthur. "I hope I am without ambition,

particularly of that sort which would annihilate processes and labors,

and seek to obtain distinction by an easy path. I do not know that I

shall make a speech during the whole of this Congress, although I

shall try to be in my seat every day, and to vote when I am well

informed. What committee is it that you have been at such pains to put

me at the head of it?"

"The Committee on Ancient Contracts."

Arthur MacNair, who had not much color at the best of times, turned a

little pale.

"Elk," said he, "there is a bad sound in that word 'contracts.' Of

course, I do not take much stock in the widespread scandal about our

Government giving away contract work to do from base or personal

considerations; but I have a little belief that one ought to avoid

even the appearance of evil. I think I must refuse to go on that

committee."

Elk MacNair seemed to grow darker and older, and his face assumed an

intensity of expression which his brother did not perceive.

"Pshaw! Arty," he said, with agitation, "everything here goes by

friends. You brought with you no renown, no superstition, nothing

which would entitle you to the Speaker's consideration. He might have

put you, but for me, away down on the Committee on Revolutionary

Pensions."

"I think I would like that committee," said Arthur MacNair quietly.

"In it I might be the means of doing gratitude to some old and needy

hero. I like those tasks which involve no notoriety. At home, in our

church and among our townsfolks, I always tried to get on the

societies which are unknown to public fame; and there, any little

thing which I can diligently do brings its own reward. I must decline

to go on the Committee on Ancient Contracts, Elk!"

The younger brother, with his dark burning eyes, met at this point the

cool, unsuspecting glance of the country lawyer, and something in it

seemed to embarrass even his worldliness, for he rose from his seat

and threw up his hands impatiently.

"Oh! very well," he said. "I thought I was doing you a service, and

now I see that it has been love's labor lost. In fact, I want you on

that committee to serve a little turn for me!"

The country brother looked up with truthful surprise.

"For you, Elk?"

"Yes," cried the younger, striding up and down the floor with the step

of one made decisive by being put at bay; "I want you upon that

committee, not only to do me a turn but to do me a benefit; to come to

my rescue; to fulfil the expectations of many hard-working months; to

make me happy. Yes, Arthur, to make my fortune!"

Arthur MacNair followed the rapid walk and excited voice of his

brother with astonishment. His small, thin, commonplace face seemed to

develop lights and intelligences which were painful to him, the

clearer his apprehensions became. He said, in a quiet, still voice, as

if he also were interested now,

"I am afraid I am on the eve of hearing something bad, my brother. If

it must come, let it all come."

"Arthur MacNair," said Elk, his voice raised above the ordinary pitch,

and the recklessness of an officer in the ardor of battle showing in

his working face, quick talk, and rapid gestures, "you _are_ on the

eve of hearing something. In your answer lies my destiny. I told you I

was a lawyer, and had made one hundred and sixty thousand dollars with

which I was to buy my way into an attorney's firm and establish myself

in business. It was true. I have made that engagement. My talent and

energy are recognized, and the place of which I spoke is waiting for

me immediately after my marriage. The lady who is to be my bride is

divided from me by no other consideration than this--that I have not

obtained the one hundred and sixty thousand dollars."

The Congressman grew paler, and he made an effort to say "Go on," but

his voice was scarcely audible, and Elk MacNair saw that he seemed to

be suddenly sick. With self-reproach the younger brother observed all

this, but it was too late for him to falter; the time was too

precious.

"Arty," he said; "oh, my brother, the whole story must be told and the

full crisis met. I am dependent upon you for the price of my

happiness; for the hand of my wife; for the key to my fortune; for all

that makes the future auspicious and the past clear. I am not a

lawyer, as I have said, in the common sense in which, with modest

effort and goodness, you have followed out your career. I am a

lobbyist!"

"I returned from the war flushed with my success, and told on every

hand that an immediate and profound prosperity were close before me.

These politicians and speculators around the capital took me by the

hand, flattered me, and showed me where my fortune was within my own

grasp. Little by little they led me on, using my reputation and

influence to accomplish their ends; and my mode of living, my

acquaintances, my expectations, increased with my facilities, until,

chafing under the consciousness that I was working out the private

interests of others, I resolved to stake all upon one large hazard,

conclude this wayward, self-accusing life, and depart from the

purlieus of legislation. Up to the present time no stigma has been

attached to my irregularities, none have suspected that I was less

than I claimed to be--a soldier and a gentleman, betrothed to the

noblest woman in the world. But this manner of living in the end works

the destruction of habits and reputation to any who continue in it. To

be brief, I have found political life nothing but a commerce. All have

their price, and the highest sometimes sell out the cheapest. Men are

estimated here by their boldness and breadth only, and a single

successful venture of the kind I have in hand will dismiss me from

this city rich and without exposure, and I swear never again to be

seen in the lobbies of the Federal legislature. All my dependence in

this, however, is upon you. I watched your campaign in our native

region--how gallantly and how exceptionably you fought it, none knows

so well!--and I took to heart the belief that, wishing to see me

distinguished, wedded, and settled, your old scruples might give way,

and you would afford me this last, best chance. Shall I go on?"

The small, thin face of the elder brother seemed to have lost all of

its vitality; his fragile form was even more diminished; it might

almost have been paralysis which had seized him.

"Water!" he muttered. "I cannot talk."

The younger brother ran for a glass, and with a look of mingled guilt

and affection sought to support him with his arm. Arthur MacNair

feebly repelled his assistance.

"You may finish, sir," he said.

"God forgive me," cried Elk MacNair, sinking into a chair; "my

brother, I beseech you, do not think so evil of me as to suppose that

in this enterprise I would compromise your character for one minute,

and if it shall be necessary, all the fault shall be mine by open

confession. There is an old claim for postal services rendered many

years ago, which has reposed in the catacombs of one of the

departments. The claimant has long been dead, and it was purchased for

a small sum from his heirs. There are some equities about the claim;

the attestations in its favor are purely documentary, and I have so

entirely manipulated every instrumentality on the way to its passage,

judicial, legislative, and executive, that if the Committee on Ancient

Contracts should report favorably upon it at the beginning of the

session, my confederates in the House will see that it goes along, and

the department will pay it immediately. Congress will then at once

adjourn, within a day or two, for such is the usage here. With my

share of the money, which will be large, I will be a man of wealth and

able to turn my back once and for all upon this Capitol. You are to be

the chairman of the committee; the other members, as is habitual here,

will intrust the whole matter to you; a few words explanatory of this

claim will send it on its way, and the crisis of my life will have

passed."

When the younger brother had finished, he also seemed to have expended

his strength in the effort he had made, and he sat limp and

despondent. The elder brother, on the contrary, appeared to recover

his strength by a vigorous effort of the will. He stood up. He walked

straight before his brother and looked down upon him with his

penetrating blue eyes.

"Elk MacNair," he said, "tell me--by our common origin, solemnly,

truthfully, and on your honor, tell me--will this claim stand the test

of full investigation? Is it right?"

"Arthur," said the younger, feebly, "under that appeal I must speak

truthfully. The claim is irregular; perhaps it has been paid already.

There is no time for investigation. I have stocked the cards, and the

trick must be taken at once or never. You have this alternative. I can

take you off that committee, and I have a man in reversion who will

get the post and pass the claim."

The stature of Arthur MacNair seemed to expand, and he became the

positive spirit of the room.

"Not so," he said; "it shall not pass, Elk MacNair, neither by my help

nor by any other man's! You have acknowledged to me that there is no

justice in this thing. You have made me a party to a fraud. You shall

know that the only oath I came here to take is that of allegiance to

the interests of the country. No brotherhood, no sympathy, no

ambition, no pity, nothing shall be able to swerve me from my full

duty."

"What would you do, fanatic?" cried Elk MacNair.

"I will denounce that claim upon the floor of Congress, and couple

with the denunciation the story of this infamous proposal you have

made to a member of Congress."

The younger brother gave a laugh.

"What nonsense, Arthur," he said. "If you expect to find any large

class of Americans who will appreciate such heroism, exhibited at the

sacrifice of your own blood and family, you do not know your

countrymen in these days. The only men who deal in sentiment in our

time are demagogues, who never feel it. A sneer will go up from all

the circles of the capital, from all the presses of the land, at a man

who seeks, in a political age, to play the part of the elder Brutus."

"Miserable, lost, dishonored man!" said Arthur MacNair. "In the

valleys of my State, in the quiet farming districts all through the

Union, among the hard-working, the penurious, and the plain--such as

you and your class despise--there are armies of men who would rise and

march upon this capital if they appreciated the whole of the scene in

which you have figured to-day! You would steal the money of the

people that you may buy a character and a position among your

countrymen. Shame upon the man who would defend the acquisition of

such booty to wed the woman he loves."

Every word which Arthur MacNair had uttered, and most of all the last,

cut like a knife into the pride of Elk MacNair.

"I thought I was pleading with my brother," he said hoarsely, "not to

a stone. I shall say no more. I have placed myself in your power.

Remember this: if my point is not carried within three days, or if it

be balked by your interference, I will blow out my brains. I have

walked to the door of hell on the battle-field, and I can go further."

He seized his hat and hurried away like a fury. Arthur MacNair stood

motionless an instant in the middle of the floor, and then, worn out

with the intensity of the scene, his limbs gave way beneath him, and

he fell unconscious.

In a moment the hard, strong face and giant form of Jabel Blake

appeared over the threshold of the bedroom; he lifted his Congressman

and counsel in his arms and carried him grimly to a sofa.