"Thanks, that makes it unanimous. Well, I don't want my side to get
such an upper hand that it will put the other side out of business, or
vice versa. What we want is a status quo."
"Gee, you've got educated since you've been down here with these
crackers."
"You flatter them, Bunny; run along now. I'll have my car come by your
hotel to bring you to dinner."
"Thanks for the compliment, old man, but I'm staying at the Y. M. C. A.
It's cheaper," laughed Bunny.
"But is it safer?" kidded Matthew, as his friend withdrew.
Two days later Bunny Brown left for New York on a secret mission. Not
only was he to spy on Santop Licorice and see how effective his work
was, but he was also to approach Dr. Shakespeare Agamemnon Beard,
Dr. Napoleon Wellington Jackson, Rev. Herbert Gronne, Col. Mortimer
Roberts, Prof. Charles Spelling, and the other Negro leaders with a
view to getting them to speak to white audiences for the benefit of the
Knights of Nordica. Matthew already knew that they were in a precarious
economic situation since they now had no means of income, both the
black masses and the philanthropic whites having deserted them. Their
white friends, mostly Northern plutocrats, felt that the race problem
was being satisfactorily solved by Black-No-More, Incorporated, and so
did the Negroes. Bunny's job was to convince them that it was better
to lecture for the K. of N. and grow fat than to fail to get chances
to lecture to Negroes who weren't interested in what they said anyhow.
The Grand Exalted Giraw had a personal interest in these Negro leaders.
He realized that they were too old or too incompetent to make a living
except by preaching and writing about the race problem, and since they
had lost their influence with the black masses, they might be a novelty
to introduce to the K. of N. audiences. He felt that their racial
integrity talks would click with the crackers. They knew more about it
too than any of his regular speakers, he realized.
As the train bearing Bunny pulled into the station in Charlotte, he
bought an evening paper. The headline almost knocked him down: