After Senator Corson had recovered his poise his dignity asserted itself
and he sat down and assumed an attitude that suggested the frigidity of a
statue on an ice-cake. He checked Governor North with an impatient flap of
the hand. "You have had your innings as a manager, North!"
He proceeded frostily with Morrison. "There was never a situation in state
history like this one you have precipitated, sir, and if I have made an
ass of myself I was copying current manners."
"It is a strange situation, I'll admit, Senator," Morrison agreed.
"As a newsmonger, you say, do you, that minutes are valuable?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Well, we'd better find out how valuable they are. Will you send General
Totten below to investigate?"
Morrison surveyed appraisingly the panoplied adjutant-general. "I'd never
think of making General Totten an errand-boy, sir, if I'm to imply that I
have any say in affairs just now."
"You have assumed all say! You have put gentlemen in a position where they
can't help themselves." The Senator scowled in the direction of Rellihan.
But Rellihan did not mind; right then he was opening the door to the
returning Mac Tavish.
"I routed Mac Tavish out of bed and brought him along to attend to
errands. He will go and see how matters are below, and outside," proffered
Morrison, courteously.
The self-appointed manager gave Mac Tavish his new orders and added:
"Inquire, please, if any telegrams have arrived for me. I'm expecting
some."
Rellihan again deferentially opened the door for the messenger of the
mayor of Marion; Mac Tavish had knocked and given his name. "It's all
richt, sir!" he had reported on his arrival from his mission to the
telephone.
The exasperated Governor viewed that free ingress and muttered.
Mac Tavish's unimpeded egress on the second errand provoked the Governor
more acutely.
"Morrison, I'm now talking strictly for myself," went on the Senator. "I
shall use plain words. By your attitude you directly accuse me of being a
renegade in politics. To all intents and purposes I am under arrest, as a
person dangerous to be at large in the affairs that are pressing."
"Senator Corson, I don't believe you ever did a deliberately wrong or
wicked thing in your life, as an individual."
"I thank you!"
"But deliberately political methods can be wicked in their general
results, even if those methods are sanctioned by usage. It's wicked to
start a fight here to-night by allowing political misunderstandings to
play fast and loose with the people."
"You're a confounded imbecile, that's what you are," shouted Governor
North.
The mayor turned on him. "Replying in the same sort of language, so that
you may understand right where you and I get off in our relations, I'll
tell you that you're the kind of man who would use grandmothers in a
matched fight to settle a political grudge--if the other fellow had a
grandmother and you could borrow one. Now let me alone, sir! I am talking
with Senator Corson!"
The Senator squelched the Governor with another gesture. "We have our
laws, Morrison. We must abide by 'em. And the political game must be
played according to the law."
"I think I have already expressed my opinion to you about that game, sir.
I'll say again that in this country politics is no longer a mere game to
be played for party advantage and the aggrandizement of individuals. The
folks won't stand for that stuff any longer."
"I think you and North, both of you, are overexcited. You're going off
half cocked. You are exaggerating a tempest in a teapot."
"If every community in this country gets right down to business and stops
the teapot tempests by good sense in handling them when they start, we'll
be able to prevent a general tornado that may sweep us all to Tophet,
Senator Corson."
"Legislation on broad lines will remedy our troubles. We are busy in
Washington on such matters."
"Good luck to the cure-all, sir! But in the mean time we need specific
doses, right at home, in every community, early and often. That's what we
ought to be tending to to-night, here in Marion. If every city and town
does the same thing, the country at large won't have to worry."
Senator Corson kept his anxious gaze on the private door. "Well, let's
have it, Morrison! You seem to be bossing matters, just as you threatened
to do. What's your dose in this case?"
"I wasn't threatening! I was promising."
"Promising what?"
"That the people would get a square deal in this legislative matter."
"You don't underrate your abilities, I note!"
"Oh, I was not promising to do it myself. I have no power in state
politics. I was promising that Governor North and his Executive Councilors
who canvassed the election returns would give the folks a square deal."
In his rage the Governor, defying such presumptuous interference, was not
fortunate in phrasing his declaration that Morrison had no right to
promise any such thing.
The big millman surveyed His Excellency with a whimsical expression of
distress. "Why, I supposed I had the right to promise that much on behalf
of our Chief Executive. You aren't going to deny 'em a square deal--you
don't mean that, do you, sir?"
"Confound your impudence, you have no right to twist my meaning. I'm going
by the law--strictly by the statutes! The question will be put up to the
court."
"Certainly!" affirmed Senator Corson. "It must go to the court."
Just then Rellihan slammed the private door with a sort of official
violence.
Mac Tavish had entered. He marched straight to Morrison with the stiff
jerkiness of an automaton. He carried a sealed telegram and held it as far
in front of himself as possible. Stewart seized upon it and tore the
envelope. "I'm glad to hear you say that about the court, gentlemen. I
have taken a liberty this evening. Will you please wait a moment while I
glance at this?"
It was plainly, so his manner indicated, something that had a bearing on
the issue. They leaned forward and attended eagerly on him when he began
to read aloud:
"My opinion hastily given for use if emergency is such as you mention is
that mere technicalities, clerical errors that can be shown to be such or
minor irregularities should not be allowed to negative will of voter when
same has been shown beyond reasonable doubt. Signed, Davenport, Judge
Supreme Judicial Court."
Morrison waited a few moments, gazing from face to face. Then he leaned
across the table and gave the telegram into the hands of Miss Bunker.
"Make it a part of the record, please," he directed.
"Well, I'll be eternally condemned!" roared the Governor. "You're a rank
outsider. You don't know what you're talking about. How do you dare to
involve the judges? They don't know what they're talking about, either, on
a point of law, in this case."
"Perhaps Judge Davenport isn't talking law, wholly, in that telegram. He
may be saying a word as an honest man who doesn't want to see his state
disgraced by riot and bloodshed to-night." The mayor addressed Mac Tavish
with eager emphasis. "What do you find down below, Andy?"
"Nae pairticular pother withindoors. Muckle powwow wi'out," reported the
old man, tersely.
"Then you got a look outside?"
"Aye! When I took the message frae the telegraph laddie at the door."
"Was Joe Lanigan in sight?"
"Aye!"
"It's all right so far, gentlemen," the mayor assured his involuntary
conferees. "Joe is on the job with his American Legion boys, as he
promised me he'd be. Now I'm going to be perfectly frank and inform you
that I have made a promise of my own in this case. I haven't meant to be
presumptuous. I don't want you to feel that I've got a swelled head. I'm
merely trying to keep my word and carry out a contract on a business
oasis. It's only a matter of starting right; then everything can be kept
right."
He whirled on Mac Tavish. "Trot down again, Andy. I'm expecting more
messages. And keep us posted on happenings!"
"Are such humble persons as North and I are entitled to be let in on any
details of your contract, Mister Boss-in-Chief?" inquired the Senator.
"I think the main contract is your own, sir--yours and the Governor's. I
don't like to seem too forward in suggesting what it is."
"Nothing you can say or do from now on will seem forward, Morrison. Even
if you should order that Hereford steer, there, at the door, to bang us
over our heads with his shillalah, it would seem merely like an
anticlimax, matched with the rest of your cheek! What's the contract?"
"You and North stated the terms of it, yourselves, when you were
campaigning last election. You said that if you were elected you'd be the
servants of the people."
"What in the devil do you claim we are now?"
"I make no assertion. But when I was down with the bunch this evening I
was able to get into the spirit of the crowd. I found myself, feeling,
just as they said they felt, that it's a queer state of affairs when
servants barricade themselves in a master's castle and use other paid
servants to threaten with rifles and machine-guns when the master demands
entry."
"I'd be carrying out my contract, would I, by disbanding that militia and
opening this State House to the mob?" demanded North.
"This is a peculiar emergency, sir," Morrison insisted. "Outside are
massing all the elements of a know-nothing, rough-house mêlée. Even the
Legion boys don't know just where they're at till there's a showdown. I
can depend on 'em right now while they're waiting for that showdown.
They'll fight their finger-nails off to hold the plain rowdies in line.
Such boys have been showing their mettle in one city in this country,
haven't they? But a mere licking, no matter which side wins, doesn't last
long enough for any general good unless the licking is based on principle
and the principle is thereby established as right! Now let me tell you,
Governor North. You can't fool those Legion boys outside. They have come
home with new conceptions of what is a square deal. They're plumb on to
the old-fashioned tricks in cheap politics. They're not letting
officeholders play checkers with 'em any longer.
"Governor--and you, Senator Corson--this is now a question of to-night--an
emergency--an exigency! I have told those boys that they will be shown!
You've got to show 'em. Show 'em that this State House is always open to
decent citizens. Show 'em that you, as officeholders, don't need
machine-guns to back you up in your stand." He emphasized each declaration
by a resounding thump of his fist on the table. "Show 'em that it's a
square deal, and that your cuffs are rolled up when you deal! Show 'ern
that you're not bluffing honestly elected members of this incoming
legislature out of their seats by closing the doors on 'em to-morrow.
That's your contract! Are you going to keep it?"
Mac Tavish returned. He brought another telegram.
Morrison ripped the inclosure from the envelope.
"It's of the same purport as the other," he reported. "Signed, 'Madigan,
Justice Supreme Judicial Court.' Back to the door, Mac Tavish. Here, Miss
Bunker, insert this in the record."
"This is simply preposterous!" exploded the Senator.
"Rather irregular, certainly," Stewart confessed. "But I didn't ask 'em
for red tape! I asked 'em for quick action to prevent bloodshed!"
Senator Corson's fresh fury did not allow him to reason with himself or
argue with this interloper, this lunatic who was flailing about in that
sanctuary of vested authority, knocking down hallowed procedure, sacred
precedents--all the gods of the fane!
"Morrison, no such an outrage as this was ever perpetrated in American
politics!"
"It surely does seem to be a new wrinkle, Senator! I'll confess that I
don't know much about politics. It's all new to me. I apologize for the
mistakes I'm making. Probably I'll know more when I've been in politics a
little longer."
"You will, sir!"
Governor North agreed with that dictum, heartily, irefully.
"I do seem to be finding out new things every minute or so," went on
Stewart, making the agreement unanimous. "Taking your opinion as experts,
perhaps I may qualify as an expert, too, before the evening is over."
"Where is this infernal folly of yours heading you?" Corson permitted his
wrath to dominate him still farther. He shook his fist under Morrison's
nose.
"Straight toward a Bright Light, Senator! I'm putting no name on it. But
I'm keeping my eyes on it. And I can't stop to notice what I'm knocking
down or whose feet I'm treading on."
The Senator went to Governor North and struck his fist down on His
Excellency's shoulder. "I've been having some doubts about your methods,
sir, but now I'm with you, shoulder to shoulder, to save this situation.
Pay no attention to those telegrams. There's no telling what that idiot
has wired to the justices. This man has not an atom of authority. You
cannot legally share your authority with him. To defer to one of his
demands will be breaking your oath to preserve order and protect state
property."
"Exactly! I don't need that advice, Corson, but I do need your support. I
shall go ahead strictly according to the constitution and the statutes."
"I am glad to hear you say that, Governor," stated Morrison.
"Did you expect that I was going to join you and your mob of lawbreakers?"
"Your explicit statement pleases me, I say. Shall you follow the
constitution absolutely, in every detail?"
"Absolutely! In every detail."
"Right down to the last technical letter of it?"
"Good gad! what do you mean by asking me such fool questions?"
"I'm getting a direct statement from you on the point. For the record!" He
pointed to the stenographer.
"I shall observe the constitution of this state to the last letter of it,
absolutely, undeviatingly. And now, as Governor of this state, I shall
proceed to exert my authority. Put that statement in the record! I order
you to leave the State House immediately. Record that, too! Otherwise I
shall prefer charges before the courts that will put you in state prison,
Morrison!"
"Do you know exactly the provisions of the constitution relating to your
office, sir?"
"I do."
"Don't you realize that, according to the technical stand you take, you
have no more official right in this Capitol than I have, just now?"
His Excellency's silence, his stupefaction, suggested that his convictions
as to Morrison's lunacy were finally clinched.
"The constitution, that you have invoked, expressly provides that a
Governor's term of office expires at midnight, on the day preceding the
assembling of the first session of the legislature. You will be Governor
in the morning at ten-thirty o'clock, when you take your oath before the
joint session. But by your own clock up there you ceased to be Governor of
this state five minutes ago!" Morrison drawled that statement in a very
placid manner. His forefinger pointed to the clock on the wall of the
Executive Chamber.
Governor North did know the constitution, even if he did not know the time
o' night until his attention had been drawn to it. He was disconcerted
only for a moment; then he snorted his disgust, roused by this attempt of
a tyro to read him a lesson in law.
Senator Corson expressed himself. "Don't bother us with such nonsense!
Such a ridiculous point has never been raised."
"But this is a night of new wrinkles, as we have already agreed," insisted
the mayor of Marion. "I'm right along with the Governor, neck and neck, in
his observance of the letter of the law."
"Well, then, we'll stick to the letter," snapped His Excellency. "I have
declared this State House under martial law. The adjutant-general, here,
is in command of the troops and the situation."
"I'm glad to know that. I'll talk with General Totten in a moment!"
Again Mac Tavish came trotting past Rellihan.
Morrison snatched away the telegram that his agent proffered; but the
master demanded news before proceeding to open the missive.
"There's summat in the air," reported Andrew. "Much blust'ring; the square
is crowded! Whilst I was signing the laddie's book Lanigan cried me the
word for ye to look sharp and keep the promise, else he wouldna answer for
a'!"
"Gentlemen, I'll let you construe your own contracts according to your
consciences. I have one of my own to carry out. Mac Tavish has just handed
me a jolt on it!
"Governor North, seeing that your contract with the state is temporarily
suspended, I suppose we'll have to excuse you to some extent, after all!
Mac Tavish, step here, close to me!"
The old man obeyed; the two stood in the full glare of the chandelier.
Stewart held up his right hand. "You're a notary public, Andrew.
Administer an oath! Like that one you administered to me when I was sworn
in as mayor of Marion. You can remember the gist of it."
"In what capaceety do you serve, Master Morrison?" inquired Mac Tavish,
stolidly.
Stewart hesitated a moment, taking thought. "I'm going to volunteer as a
sort of an Executive, gentlemen," he explained, deferentially. "The
exigency seems to need one. I have heard that a good Executive is one who
acts quickly and is right--part of the time! I'm indebted to Senator
Corson for a suggestion he made a little while ago. I think, Mac Tavish,
you'd better swear me in as Boss of the Job."