leaning forward, jutting his head past the ambuscade. He was an elderly
man with an up-cocked gray mustache, and there was a queer little smile
in his shrewd blue eyes. Dodd knew him; he was one Mullaney, a state
detective.
“What are you doing here--practicing your sneak work?” demanded the
young man. As a state official he did not entertain a high opinion of
the free-lance organization to which Mullaney belonged.
“I'm here reading a paper--supposed it's what the room is for,” returned
Detective Mullaney. “But excuse me--I'll get out. Room seems to be
reserved for prize-fighters.”
“You keep your mouth shut about that--that insult.”
“I never talk--it would hurt my business.”
“I don't fight in a public place. I'm a gentleman. I want you to
remember what you saw, Mullaney! I'll get to that cheap bum in a way he
won't forget.”
“Do you mind telling me who your friend is?” asked the detective.
Dodd shot him a sour side-glance and muttered profanity.
“I couldn't help wondering what particular kind of business you and he
could have, seeing how it was transacted,” pursued the detective.
Dodd glowered at the floor. “Look here, Mullaney! There's a whole lot
about that man I want to know, if you can help me and keep your mouth
closed. I haven't got much confidence in the work you fellows do--they
tell me you can't detect mud on your own boots.”
Mr. Mullaney pulled his chair out from behind the papers and leaned back
in it and crossed his hands over his stomach and smiled without a trace
of resentment.
“I might tell you something right now about that tall friend of yours
that would jump you, Mr. Dodd--I'm that much of a detective!”
“Tell me, then.”
“Just as it stands it's guesswork--considerable guesswork.”
“What does that amount to?”
“A great deal in my business. Take this city of one hundred thousand!
I'm the only man in it who is making guesswork about strangers his
special line of work. The rest of the citizens rub elbows with all
passers and don't give a hoot. There are a good many thousand men in
this country whom the law wants and whom the law can't find. That fellow
may be one of them, for all I know. I guess he is, for instance. Then I
make it my business to prove guesswork.”
“You must be doing a devil of a rushing business!” sneered Dodd.
“I manage to make a good living. I don't talk about my business, for if
I should blow it I wouldn't have any. I say, I _guess_! Then I spend my
spare time hunting through my books of pointers. For ten years I have
read every newspaper I could get hold of. I come in here and study
papers from all over. Every crime that has been committed, every man
wanted, every chap who has got away, I write down all I can find out
about him. Then, if anything comes up to make me guess about a man I
begin to hunt my books through.”
“Well, if I'm any good on a guess,” snorted Dodd, “that renegade who
just insulted me is down in your books, somewhere. You'd better hunt.”
“It's slow work and eats up time,” sighed Mr. Mullaney.
Dodd looked at him for a time and then began to pull crumpled bills from
his waistcoat pocket. He straightened five ten-dollar bills, creased
them into a trough, and stuck the end toward the detective.
“Follow his trail back. I never heard of your book scheme before. Take
this money for a starter. If you can't find him in your books, pick out
half a dozen of the worst crimes any man can commit and hitch 'em on to
him somehow,” urged Dodd, with fury. “Go after him. And when we get him
good and proper I want to do some gloating through the bars. He's the
first man who ever smacked my face for me--and I'll see that he gets
his.”
He left Mr. Mullaney stowing the money away in a big wallet which was
stuffed with newspaper clippings. He hurried in to the bar, gulped
down a drink, and then went to the office desk and examined the hotel
register. Anger and zest for revenge were stimulating in him a lively
interest in that meeting which Farr seemed to be promoting. Mr. Dodd
did not care especially what kind of meeting it was. He had set forth to
camp on Walker Farr's trail and do him what hurt he could.
Dodd was a well-posted political worker. The names of the men were not
names especially prominent in state politics, but his suspicions were
stirred when he saw that all counties in the state were represented.
And no more were arriving. He decided that the conference must be in
session.
Dodd avoided the elevator. He tramped up the broad stairs to the floor
above the office. The doors of the large parlor were closed. He turned
the knob cautiously; the doors were locked. He heard within the dull
mumble of many voices--men in conversation. It was evident that the
formal meeting, whatever it might be, had not begun its session. He
tiptoed away from the door and climbed another flight of stairs.
There were no nooks and corners of the old National Hotel which Richard
Dodd did not understand in all their intricacies. As his uncle's
political scout it had been his business to know them.
He hunted along the corridor until he found a maid.
“Is there anybody in Number 29?” he asked.
“Two of that new crowd that just came in have it, Mr. Dodd. But they
have gone down-stairs again.”
He wadded a bill in his palm and jammed it into her hand. “Let me in
with your pass-key, that's a good girl. It's all right. I won't disturb
their stuff. I only want to listen. You understand! There's a political
game on. I want to get to that ventilator in the closet--you know it!”
“Oh, if it's only politics, Mr. Dodd!” she sniffed, with the scorn of a
girl who has seen many conventions come and go, knew the little tricks,
and had developed for the whole herd of politicians lofty disdain; she
knew them merely as loud-talking men who had little consideration
for hotel maids, men who littered their rooms with cigar stubs and
whisky-bottles. She started for the door, swinging the pass-key on its
cord. “If it's just politics, sure you can go in. Many a buck I've let
in to listen to their old palaver down in that parlor.”
Dodd bolted the door behind him.
He felt entirely safe, for he understood that the rightful tenants of
that room were locked into the parlor below. He climbed upon a chair in
the closet and put his ear to the grating of the ventilator.
He heard only one man's voice. He recognized its crisp tones--it was the
Honorable Archer Converse.
“I repeat, gentlemen, that this interest of yours would amaze me if I
had not been prepared by reports from our agents who have been so well
captained by Mr. Walker Farr. Remember that this is simply a conference,
prior to organization. Every man of you is a chief in it. Let us be
calm, discreet, sensible, and silent.
“I'm not going over the details of the unrest in this state. The fact
that so many of you are present here from all sections is sufficient
commentary on that unrest. We understand perfectly well that a certain
clique of self-seekers has arrogated to itself supreme control of the
party. A party must be controlled, I admit. If that control were in the
hands of honest and patriotic men we would not be here today.
“I'm not going to bother you with details of what has been going on in
departments in our State House. The employees are the tools of the ring
and they have misused their power. I'm afraid of what may be uncovered
there when the house-cleaning begins. But the honor of our party demands
such a house-cleaning.”
Richard Dodd's hands trembled as he clung to the ventilator bars.
“However, we are faced by something in the way of an issue that's bigger
than graft.”
Now his earnestness impressed more than ever the listener at the
grating.
“Gentlemen, to a certain extent graft is bound to be fostered and
protected by any party; but when a party is used to protect and
aggrandize those who monopolize the people's franchise rights it's time
for the honest men in that party to be _men_ instead of partisans. Don't
you allow those monopolists to hold you in line by whining about party
loyalty. And don't let them whip you into line by their threats, either.
I refuse, for one, as much as I love my party, to have its tag tied into
my ear if that tag isn't clean!”
The assemblage applauded that sentiment.
“I'm going to call names, gentlemen. Colonel Symonds Dodd has this state
by its throat. With Colonel Dodd stand all the financial interests--the
railroads, the corporations, even the savings-banks. He is intrenched
behind that law which limits the indebtedness of our cities and towns.
Municipalities cannot own their own plants under present conditions.
Those men are even using the people's own money against them! They scare
depositors by threats of financial havoc if present conditions and the
big interest are bothered by any legislation.
“I must warn you, gentlemen, that it's a long and difficult road ahead
of us. But we must start. I have not intended to discourage you by
stating the obstacles to be overcome.
“I have explained them so that, if we make slow progress at first, we
shall not be discouraged.
“We will organize prevailing unrest and the innate honesty in this
state. We will establish a branch of the Square Deal Club in every town
and city. It must be done carefully, conservatively, and as secretly as
possible.” The lawyer's cautious fear of too much haste now displayed
itself. “The most we can hope to do is send to the state convention
some men who will leaven that lump of ring politics. Party usage and
tradition are so strong that we must renominate Governor Harwood, I
suppose, for a complimentary second term.”
“I think we can do better,” cried a voice.
“Possibly,” returned Mr. Converse, dryly, “but we must do that 'better'
carefully and slowly. In politics, gentlemen, we cannot transform the
ogre into the saint merely by waving the magic wand and expecting
the charm to operate instantly. Possibly we can control the next
legislature. I do not know just what legislation we may be able to
devise and pass, but I hope for inspiration.
“I will say now that I am with you. My purse is open. Command my
services for all questions of law. I will establish myself at the
capital for the legislative session.
“But there is one thing I will not do under any circumstances--I will
not accept political office.”
“You bet you won't,” muttered young Dodd, at the grating. “You wouldn't
be elected a pound-keeper in the town of Bean Center.”
But if Mr. Dodd could have seen through that grating as well as hear he
would have been greatly interested just then in the expression on the
face of Walker Farr. The face was not exactly the face of a prophet, but
it had a large amount of resolution written over it.
“I don't want to be the first one to throw any cold water on our
prospects,” declared a voice, after Mr. Converse had announced that the
meeting was open for general discussion; “it really does seem to me that
we stand a good show of getting control of the next legislature.
But after we do get control what prospect is there of passing any
legislation that will help us? Wherever there is a water system in this
state the municipality has been so loaded down with debts our machine
politics have plastered into it that the legal debt limit has been
reached. The only way this water question can be cleared up is by taking
the systems away from those monopolists--making them the property of
towns and cities. But if towns and cities can't borrow any more money,
just how is this to be done? Mr. Converse hasn't told us! We can clean
up politics, perhaps, but it seems to me that we'll never be able to
clean up the dirtiest and most dangerous mess.”
On the silence that followed broke a voice which made Dodd, his ear to
the grating, grate his teeth. His hatred recognized this speaker. It was
Walker Farr.
“I apologize for venturing to speak in this meeting,” he said. “But if
that gentleman's question isn't answered here and now in some way I'm
afraid men will go away discouraged. I have heard the same question,
Mr. Converse, as I have traveled about the state lately. I have thought
about this matter constantly, in my poor fashion. And because I went
into that job of pondering with an open mind is the reason, perhaps, why
a strange idea has come to me. You know they say that strange notions
are born out of ignorance. The better way would have been, possibly, to
submit the plan first of all to your legal mind, Mr. Converse. I will
keep silence now and confer with you, sir, if you think best.” His tone
was wistful.
“Talk it out in open meeting,” cried the cordial voice of Mr. Converse.
“Free speech and all of us taken into confidence--that's the spirit of
this movement of ours!”
“Has it ever occurred to anybody to form a new municipality for water
purposes only? I have studied your state constitution, and the language
in which the debt limit of five percent is provided I find applies
strictly to towns and cities. Suppose the citizens of Marion, together
with the adjoining towns of Weston and Turner, all of them now served
by the Consolidated, should unite simply as individuals for the common
purpose of owning and operating their own water-plant--form, say a water
district?”
“An independent body politic and corporate?” It was Converse's voice and
it betrayed quick interest and some astonishment.
“I suppose that would be the legal name, sir. Wouldn't it be possible to
organize such a combination of the people, distinct from other municipal
responsibilities? Then if we can elect the right men to our legislature
we can go to the State House and ask for some legislation that will
enable us to take over systems by the right of eminent domain, provide
a plan of fair appraisal, give us a law which will make water-district
bonds a legal investment for savings-banks. In short, gentlemen, I
repeat, this plan is nothing more than an organization of the desired
territory and people into a new, distinct, and separate municipality for
water purposes only, leaving all other forms of municipal government to
pursue their accustomed functions precisely as though the district
had not been organized. That's the idea as best I can state it in few
words.”
There was a long period of silence.
Dodd, listening to the mutterings of a revolt which threatened the whole
political fabric which protected him, his interest clearing his brain
of the liquor fog, could imagine the scene below. That assemblage was
staring wide-eyed at Archer Converse, the law's best-grounded man in the
state.
“It is very modest to call that suggestion an idea,” stated Mr.
Converse, at last. “Mr. Farr, if I can find the necessary law in our
statutes to back it up, it's an inspiration.”
There was the ring of conviction in his tones.
Mr. Dodd left the grating and escaped from the hotel.
He fairly cantered to headquarters in the First National block; he
felt a politician's frightened conviction that he had something mighty
important to tell his uncle.
XXV
A GIRL AND A MATTER OF HONOR
It had been a protracted session.
Judge Ambrose Warren, corporation counsel for the Consolidated, leaned
back in his chair and gazed at the ceiling over the peak of the skeleton
structure he had erected in front of his nose with his fingers.
Colonel Dodd squinted first at his nephew and then at the bouquet on his
desk.
The nephew had been attempting by all the methods known to the appealing
male to win only one return glance from Kate Kilgour; but the young lady
held her eyes on her note-book, poised her pencil above the page, and
waited for more of that conversation and statement of which she had been
the silent recorder.
“You think you have given us all the main points of what you overheard,
do you, Mr. Dodd?” inquired the judge, turning sharp gaze on the young
man.
“I can't remember any more.”
“You think you recognized voices sufficiently well to be sure that
this person named Farr made that novel suggestion in regard to what was
called a 'water district'?”
“There was no mistaking his voice,” said Dodd, with the malevolence of
bitter recollection.
Another prolonged silence. Then the judge asked, his eyes again on the
ceiling, “Just who is this Walker Farr?”
Richard Dodd, keeping jealous espionage on all the girl's emotions and
movements saw a flush suffuse her cheeks; her hands trembled. She raised
her eyes in a quick glance and he detected eager inquiry.
“I don't know who he is,” growled the colonel.
“You'd better find out,” advised the corporation counsel.
“Why?”
“Of course this thing has been put up to me very suddenly. I can give
you only a snap judgment. But that scheme has possibilities.”
“As a lawyer you don't mean to tell me that a crazy idea like that can
be put through in this state against the combination we control?”
“It will not be a case of combination and money and politics, Colonel,
when it gets to the high court. It will be _law_. And I'm sorry you
can't tell me any more about the man who has devised the plan. I'd like
to know how he dug it out.”
“But a gang of pirates can't organize like that and confiscate our
property! We're going to tap the lakes. We're going ahead right away.
But can that fool's scheme scoop in the Consolidated Water Company?”
“That's to be found out. I am going to tell you now that I believe an
organization of citizens into an independent water district can be
made legally and be independent of other debts. Colonel Dodd, if that
opposition gets control of the next legislature you can depend upon it
that the necessary legislation will be passed. We may as well look facts
in the face: they're getting mighty restive in this state; the people
have been penned in by the Machine very effectually to date--but show
'em a place now where they can jump the fence and they're going to do
it.”
“But what's the good of paying you twenty-five thousand dollars a
year for law if you can't keep the bars up?” The tone was that of the
impatient tyrant.
“You'll please remember that this thing is likely to go to the United
States court. When you go in there you've got to leave your side-arms
of politics--pull and pocket-book--at the door. I will say this: the
Federal Constitution guarantees protection against any irregular,
illegal, or confiscatory action under state authority. That is, no
states shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts nor
shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without
due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws. Now, of course, a corporation is a person
in the meaning of the law, and therefore we can carry the matter to the
United States Supreme Court, but I want to tell you that if the next
legislature enacts law permitting water districts, and the state
authorities proceed to condemn your plants, you may as well get ready to
step out from under. You are a shrewd man and you understand the spirit
of these times in regard to giving to the people their full rights in
public utilities. I say again, you'd better get a line on this Walker
Farr, because it's either a case of ignorance inspired or else he's a
deep one. He has started with a plan that can be defended by law--and
the judges in these days are handing the people's rights and property
back to them when there is a legal opportunity.”
“Why, this Farr is a nothing--nobody. Dug in our trenches for a while
until he was discharged. Briggs looked him up for me. The only man
in this city he has been at all intimate with is an old Canuck named
Provancher who tends the rack down at Gamonic Mill. You can judge him by
the company he keeps.”
“Well, he seems to be fraternizing with better men just now,” drawled
the judge. “Archer Converse, for instance!”
“The thing to do,” suggested young Dodd, still watching the girl, “is
get something on that hobo and boot him out of town or put him in jail.
It ought to be easy enough.”
“And it will be attended to,” declared the colonel, with venom. “We'll
kill that one crow and hang him up in full view of the rest of those
croakers! I'll put something over on that fellow and have all the papers
in the state print it--and high-and-mighty Converse will be so disgusted
that he'll quit and the rest of the crowd will be ashamed to keep on.
Disgrace a reformer! That's the surest play in politics! We must get
Farr!”
He turned his scowling gaze away from the flowers and found Miss Kilgour
looking at him with an expression in her eyes he had never seen there
before. Reproach and scorn seemed to mingle in the stare she gave him.
He blinked, and when he looked again she was examining the point of her
pencil; he decided that his eyesight had played him a strange prank.
“By the way, Miss Kilgour,” he informed her, “you need not remain. Make
two typewritten copies--the judge will need one.”
Richard Dodd arose when she left her chair, but she did not glance
at him. He began to speak before she had reached the door, unable to
restrain his jealous temper longer.
“Uncle Symonds, pass the word to that old Provancher, through the
superintendent of the Gamonic, that unless he comes across with all the
stuff he knows about that Farr he'll be fired. And I've got a hunter out
on my own account. It will be easy enough to catch the skunk and strip
off his pelt.”
Miss Kilgour closed the door behind her with a sharper click than she
had ever given its latch before. She hurried to her typewriter in her
little room and began to work with all her energy.
She was so busy and her machine clattered so viciously that she did not
hear Richard Dodd when he entered. He leaned over her.
“Have you talked with your mother yet? Has she given you some
advice?” he asked. His jealousy still fired him and his tone was not
conciliatory.
The contempt in the glance she flung upward at him roused him to
passion. In the state of mind in which he then was he made no allowances
for her ignorance of conditions in her mother's case. He knew what he
had done for Mrs. Kilgour's sake, and this attitude on the daughter's
part pricked him like wilful ingratitude.
He put his hands on the keyboard of the typewriter and stopped her work.
“I love you, Kate, and you have known it for a long time. I tried to
show you how much I loved you. I know I did a foolish thing. But I loved
you.” He almost sobbed the protestation. “I've been in hell's torment
since it happened. I've been a fool all the way through, but I won't be
a fool any more if you'll take pity on me.”
She did not speak. Her silent, utter contempt stung more deeply and
surely than words.
“If you insist on being so high above, I'm going to bring you down a
little,” he sneered. “I hate to do it, but you've got to be shown
where your real friends are. I have given your mother a chance to say
something to you, and say it right. But she hasn't done it, and I don't
propose to be made the goat.” In his anger he was not choice in his
language. “You go home and ask her whether or not she owes me five
thousand dollars. Oh, you needn't open your eyes at me in that style!
It's time we all got down to cases in this thing, Kate. I've waited for
her long enough. She has simply fluffed me along. Now she has got to do
her part.”
“Have you lost your mind?” she demanded.
“No! But I lost five thousand dollars when I loaned it to your mother.
Kate, she told me she had a stock deal on--that she would be able to pay
it back. Listen! I may as well go the limit with you. I took money that
wasn't mine so that I could help your mother out--it was because I loved
you. Now you realize how much I have loved you. I protected your mother.
And now, by the gods, if you and she don't come to the scratch in this
thing and do right by me I'll show up why she had to be protected,
and after that you'll never draw a happy breath again in your life. I
advised you to talk with your mother once before. This time you'd better
to it.”
She leaned back in her chair, white and trembling, for his tones carried
conviction.
“I have hated to open this thing up, Kate. I have waited a long time,
hoping you'd understand that I would make a good husband--that I
deserved to have you. I'm only speaking out now so that you'll wake up.
You've got to stand by the man who has stood by you. Go talk with your
mother!”