Commander Lanigan had constituted himself the presiding officer of the
assemblage that had been gathered under no special auspices and by no
formal call. It was a flocking together of those uneasy persons who had
been informing one another that they wanted to be shown! Mr. Lanigan's
unconventional methods in the chair were tolerated because he had
displayed much alacrity in putting the mob in the way of securing
information from such high authority as the mayor of Marion. Chairman
Lanigan's compelling methods in pumping this time-filler kept up the
interest of the auditors.
"I belong to der Socialist party," stated Weisner.
"We don't want no Boche speeches!" warned a voice.
In his absorption in affairs, Lanigan was still hanging on to the captured
red necktie. He noted that fact and held the danger signal aloft. "I don't
approve of this color at this time," he remarked. "But when I have seen it
waved in times past I have known that it meant a blast going off or a
train coming on, and I have never taken foolish chances. Does the
objecting gent down there in the corner need any further instruction from
here, or shall I come down and whisper in his ear?"
Silence assured him and again he ordered Mr. Weisner to ask his question.
The querist ceased from showing deference to the volunteer in the chair;
Weisner turned his back on Lanigan and addressed all in hearing, shaking
his fist over his head: "Who tells me dis vhat I don'd know? Does Karl
Trimbach his seat haf in der State House vhere der Socialists haf elected
him?"
"If he has been elected, sure he'll have his seat," declared Lanigan,
loyally. "That's the way we do things in this country! Why shouldn't he
have his seat?"
"Den vhere--vhere is dot zertificate dot should show to Karl Trimbach dot
he shall valk into der State House und sit on his seat? He don't get it.
Why don'd dey send it?" Weisner bellowed his questions. He threshed his
arms wildly about him.
"This is no time to be starting anything, Weisner! Don't stand there and
be a Dutch windmill--be an American citizen! Soothe yourself!"
Another gentleman arose. He was distinctly Hibernian. He wore an obtrusive
ribbon-knot of green, white, and yellow, the colors of the flag of the
Irish Republic. "Lanigan, ye may not be able to reply satisfact'rily to
th' questions o' the sour-krauters, but when I ask ye whether or not the
Hon'rable Danyel O'Donnell, riprisent'thive-ilict, put in that high office
be th' votes o' th' Marion pathrits of a free Ireland, takes his sate,
what does th' blood o' yer race say to me?"
Lanigan blinked and hesitated. He felt the sudden Celtic surging of a
natural impulse to run with his kind, to swing the cudgel valiantly for
the cause, and to ask questions after the shindy was over.
"You know th' principles o' th' Hon'rable O'Donnell," insisted the speaker
in loud tones. "Tis his intint to raise his voice in th' halls o' state
and shout ear-rly and late, 'Whativer it is ye're about, gents, it all may
be very well, but what will ye be doing for the cause o' free Ireland?'
That's th' kind of a hero we're putting in th' State House en the hill."
"Putting a pest there, ye mean!" returned Lanigan.
"Is that the blood o' yer race speaking?"
"No, it's the common sense up here," declared the commander, tapping his
knuckles against the side of his head. "Look, here, Mulcahy, my man!
You're spouting about a subject that's too big for me to understand or you
to explain. And that's why you're muddling yourself and mixing up the
minds of others with your questions. I ask you no questions. I'm going to
tell you something--and it's so! If the kids in your family was down with
the measles, and the missus was all snarled up with the tickdoolooroo and
you wasn't feeling none too well yourself, what with a hold-over, a black
eye, and a lot o' bumps, what would you--Hold on! I say, I ask no
questions! I know the answer. If Tommy O'Rourke came howling and whooping
into your back door and asked you to go out and shin up a tree and fetch
down his tomcat, ye'd tell Tommy to bounce along and mind his own matters
till ye'd settled your own--and if he didn't go you'd kick him out."
"I'm discussing th' rights and wrongs of a suffering people."
"And playing safe for yourself because the subject is so big--and putting
others in wrong because they can't settle all the troubles of the universe
offhand to suit ye! My family is America, Mulcahy! It ought to be yours,
first, last, and all the time. But we've got our own aches to mind, right
now! And the way I'm putting it, a plain man can understand. If the tomcat
don't know enough to come down all by himself, leave him be up there till
the doctor tells us we can be out and about."
Weisner put his demand again and Mulcahy made the affair a vociferous
duet; other men were on their feet, shouting. But a top sergeant has a
voice of his own and a manner to go with the voice: Lanigan yelled the
chorus into silence.
While he was engaged in this undertaking a diversion at the door assisted
him. The crowd parted. Men shouted, pleading, "Make way for the mayor!"
Morrison came up the aisle toward the platform, Blanchard at his heels.
There were cheers--plenty of them!
But sibilantly, steadily, ominously the derogatory hisses were threaded
with the frank clamor of welcome; hisses whose sources were concealed.
The mayor ran up the steps of the platform and marched to Lanigan, doffing
the silk hat and extending his hand cordially.
With his forearm the commander scrubbed off the sweat that was streaming
down into his eyes. "It's been like hauling a seventy-five into action
with mules, Your Honor! For the love o' Mike, shoot!"
The hisses continued along with the applause when Stewart faced the
throng.
Lanigan leaped off the platform, not bothering with the stairs. "I'm going
to wade through this grass," he yelped. "God pity the rattlesnake I
locate!"