"Ah! Morrison, your friends are looking you up!"
"They are radicals--anarchists. They must be!" panted the messenger. "They
are yelling: 'Down with the capitalists! Down with the aristocrats!' I
ordered the shades pulled. The men seemed to be excited by looking in
through the windows at the dancers in the ballroom!"
"There'll be no trouble. I'll answer for that," promised the Mayor,
marching away.
Before he reached the door the crash of splintered glass, the screams of
women and shouts of men; drowned the music.
Stewart went leaping down the stairs. When he reached the ballroom he
found the frightened guests massed against the wall, as far from the
windows as they could crowd. A wild battle of some sort was going on
outside in the night, so oaths and cries and the grim thudding of
battering fists revealed.
Before Stewart could reach a window--one of those from which the glass had
been broken--Commander Lanigan came through the aperture with a rush,
skating to a standstill along the polished floor. Blood was on his hands.
His sleeves hung in ribbons. In that scene of suspended gaiety he was a
particularly grisly interloper.
"They sneaked it over on us, Mister Mayor!" he yelled. "I got a tip and
routed out the Legion boys and chased 'em, but the dirty, Bullshevists
beat us to it up the hill. But we've got 'em licked!"
"Keep 'em licked for the rest of the night," Morrison suggested. "I'll be
down-town with you, right away!"
But Lanigan, in his raging excitement, was not amenable to hints or
orders, nor was he cautious in his revelations. "We can handle things
down-town, Your Honor! What we want to know is, what about up-town--up on
Capitol Hill?"
"You've had my promise of what I'll do. And I'll do it!"
Senator Corson and his daughter had arrived in the ballroom. The Senator
was promptly and intensely interested in this cocksure declaration by
Morrison.
"Your promise is the same as hard cash for me and the level-headed ones,"
retorted Commander Lanigan. "But whether it's the Northern Lights in the
skies or plain hellishness in folks or somebody underneath stirring and
stirring trouble and starting lies, I don't know! Lots of good boys have
stopped being level-headed! I'll hold the gang down if I can, sir. But
what I want to know is, can we depend on you to tend to Capitol Hill? Are
you still on the job? Can I tell 'em that you're still on the job?"
"You can tell 'em all that I'm on the job from now till morning," shouted
the mayor. He was heard by the men outside. They gave his declaration a
howl of approval.
"The people will be protected," shouted an unseen admirer.
Stewart hurried to Senator Corson and was not daunted by that gentleman's
blazing countenance.
"I'm sorry, sir. This seems to be a flareback of some sort. I'll have
police on guard at once!"
"You'll protect the people, eh? There's a flatterer in your mob, Morrison!
You can't even give window-glass in this city suitable protection--a mayor
like you! I'll have none of your soviet police around my premises." He
turned to his secretary. "Call the adjutant-general at the State House and
tell him to send a detachment of troops here."
"I trust they'll co-operate well with the police I shall send," stated the
Mayor, stiffly. He hastened from the room.
When Stewart had donned hat and overcoat and was about to leave the
mansion by the main door, Lana stepped in front of him. "Stewart, you must
stop for a moment--you must deny it, what father has been saying to me
about you just now!"
"Your father is angry--and in anger a man says a whole lot that he doesn't
mean. I'm in a hurry--and a man in a hurry spoils anything he tries to
tell. We must let it wait, Lana."
"But if you go on--go on as you're going--crushing Mr. Daunt's
plans--spoiling your own grand prospects--antagonizing my father--paying
no heed to my advice!" The girl's sentences were galloping breathlessly.
"We'll have time to talk it over, Lana!"
"What! Talk it over after you have been reckless enough to spoil
everything? You must stand with your friends, I tell you! Father is wiser
than you! Isn't he right?"
"I--I guess he thinks he is--but I can't talk about it." He was backing
toward the door.
"You must know what it means--for us two--if you go headlong against him.
I stand stanchly for my father--always!"
"I reckon you'll have to be sort of loyal to your father--but I can't talk
about it! Not now!" he repeated. He was uncomfortably aware that he had no
words to fit the case.
"But if you don't stand with him, you're in with the rabble--the rabble,"
she declared, indignantly. "He says you are! Stewart, I know you won't
insult his wisdom and deny my prayer to you! Only a few moments ago I was
ready----But I cannot say those words to you unless----You understand!"
This interview had been permitted only because Senator Corson's attention
had been absorbed by Mrs. Stanton's hysterical questions. But the lady's
fears did not affect her eyesight. She had noted Lana's departure and she
caught a glimpse of the mayor when he strode past the ballroom door with
his hat in his hand.
"Yes, I'll be calm, Senator! I'm sure that we'll be perfectly protected.
Lana followed the mayor just now, and I suppose she is insisting on a
double detail of police."
The Senator promptly followed, too, to find out more exactly what Lana was
insisting on.
"Haven't you joined your rabble yet, Morrison?" Corson queried,
insolently, when he came upon the two.
"I'm going, sir--going right along!"
Lana set her hands together, the fingers interlaced so tightly that the
flesh was as white as her cheeks. "'Your rabble!' Stewart! Oh! Oh!" In
spite of her thinly veiled threat of a few moments ago, there was piteous
protest in her face and voice.
"According to suggestions from all quarters, I don't seem to fit any other
kind of society just now," he replied, ruefully. He marched out into the
night.
"Call my car," Senator Corson directed a servant.
In the reception-hall he encountered Silas Daunt, "Slip on your hat and
coat. Come along with me to the State House. I'll show you how practical
politics can settle a rumpus, after a visionary has tumbled down on his
job!"