LAST DAYS OF THE CAMPAIGN
After supper, which was eaten in the customary silence, Tom started for
the Barrys' to talk over the scheme of circularizing the members of the
union. He met Pete coming out of the Barrys' tenement. He joined him
and, as they walked away, outlined the new plan.
"That's what I call a mighty foxy scheme," Pete approved. "It's a
knock-out blow. It'll come right at the last minute, an' Foley won't
have time to hit back."
Tom pointed out the difficulty of getting the membership list. "You
leave that to me, Tom. It's as easy as fallin' off the twenty-third
story an' hittin' the asphalt. You can't miss it."
"But what kind of a deal will you make with Connelly? He's crooked, you
know."
"Yes, he has got pretty much of a bend to him," Pete admitted. "But he
ain't so worse, Tom. I've traveled a lot with him. When d'you want the
book?"
"We've got to get it and put it back without Connelly knowing it's been
gone. We'd have to use it at night. Could you get it late, and take it
back the next morning?"
"That'd be runnin' mighty close. What's the matter with gettin' it
Saturday night an' usin' it Sunday?"
"Sunday's pretty late, with the election coming Wednesday. But it'll do,
I guess."
Tom spent the evening at one corner of the dining-table from which he
had turned back the red cloth, laboriously scratching on a sheet of
ruled letter paper. He had never written when he could avoid it. His
ideas were now clear enough, but they struggled against the unaccustomed
confinement of written language. The words came slowly, with physical
effort, and only after crossing out, and interlining, and crossing out
again, were they joined into sentences.
At ten o'clock Maggie, who had been calling on a friend, came in with
Ferdinand. The boy made straight for the couch and was instantly asleep.
Maggie was struck at once by the unwonted sight of her husband writing,
but her sulkiness fought her curiosity for more than a minute, during
which she removed her hat and jacket, before the latter could gain a
grudged victory. "What are you doing?" she asked shortly.
"Writing a letter," he answered, keeping his eyes on the paper.
She leaned over his shoulder and read a few lines. Her features
stiffened. "What're you going to do with that?"
"Print it."
"But you'll have to pay for it."
"Yes."
"How much?"
"About fifty dollars."
She gasped, and her sullen composure fled. "Fifty dollars! For
that--that----" Breath failed her.
Tom looked around. Her black eyes were blazing. Her hands were clenched.
Her full breast was rising and falling rapidly.
"Tom Keating, this is about the limit!" she broke out. "Hain't your
foolishness learnt you anything yet? It's cost you seven dollars a week
already. And here you are, throwing fifty dollars away all in one lump!
Fifty dollars!" Her breath failed her again. "That's like you! You'll
throw money away, and let me go without a decent rag to my back!"
Tom arose. "Maggie," he said, in a voice that was cold and hard, "I
don't expect any sympathy from you. I don't expect you to understand
what I'm about. I don't think you want to understand. But I do expect
you to keep still, if you've got nothing better to say than you've just
said!"
Maggie had lost herself. "Is that a threat?" she cried furiously. "Do
you mean to threaten me? Why, you brute! D'you think you can make me
keep still? You throw away money that's as much mine as yours!--you make
me suffer for it!--and yet you expect me never to say a word, do you?"
Tom glared at her. His hands tingled to lay hold of her and shake her.
But, as he glared, he thought of the woman he had so recently left, and
a sense of shame for his desire crept upon him. And, too, he began
vaguely to feel, what it was inevitable he should some time feel, the
contrast between his wife ... and this other.
His silence added to her frenzy. "You threaten me? What do I care for
your threats! You can't do anything worse than you already have
done,--and are doing. You're ruining us! Well, what are you standing
there for? Why----"
There was but one thing for Tom to do, that which he had often had to do
before,--go into the street. He put the scribbled sheets into his coat,
and left her standing there in the middle of the floor pouring out her
fury.
He walked about till he thought she would be asleep, then returned. A
glance into their bedroom showed her in bed, and Ferdinand in his cot at
the bed's foot. He sat down again at the table and resumed his clumsy
pencil.
It was midnight before the two-hundred-word production was completed and
copied. He put it into an envelope, enclosed a note saying he expected
to have the list of names over the following Sunday, and took the letter
down and dropped it into a mail-box. Then removing shoes, coat, and
collar, he lay down on the sofa with his overcoat for covering, and
presently fell asleep.
Ruth's heart sank when she received the letter the next afternoon. Her
yesterday's talk with him had left her with a profound impression of his
power, and that impression had been fresh all the morning. This
painfully written letter, with its stiff, hard sentences, headed "Save
the Union!" and beginning "Brothers," recalled to her with a shock
another element of his personality. It was as though his crudity had
dissociated itself from his other qualities and laid itself, bare and
unrelieved, before her eyes.
As she read the letter a second time she felt a desire to improve upon
his sentences; but she thought this might give him offense; and she
thought also, and rightly, that his stilted sentences, rich with such
epithets, as "tyrant," "bully," "grafter," would have a stronger effect
on his readers than would more polished and controlled language. So she
carried the letter to the printer as it had left Tom's hand.
She wrote Tom that Mr. Driscoll was willing her office should be used
for the work of Sunday. Tom's answer was on a postal card and written in
pencil. She sighed.
The week passed rapidly with Tom, the nights in canvassing, the days in
work. Every time he went to work, he did so half expecting it would be
his last day on the job. But all went well till Friday morning. Then the
expected happened. As he came up to the fire-house a hansom cab, which
had turned into the street behind him, stopped and Foley stepped out.
"Hold on there, Keating!" the walking delegate called.
Tom paused, three or four paces from the cab. Foley stepped to his side.
"So this's where youse've sneaked off to work!"
Tom kept his square jaw closed.
"I heard youse were at work. I thought I'd look youse up to-day. So I
followed youse. Now, are youse goin' to quit this job quiet, or do I
have to get youse fired?"
Tom answered with dangerous restraint. "I haven't got anything against
the contractor. And I know what you'd do to him to get me off. I'll go."
"Move then, an' quick!"
"There's one thing I want to say to you first," said Tom; and instantly
his right fist caught the walking delegate squarely on the chin. Foley
staggered back against the wheel of the hansom. Without giving him a
second look Tom turned about and walked toward the car line.
When Foley recovered himself Tom was a score of paces away. Half a dozen
of the workmen were looking at him in waiting silence. He glared at
Tom's broad back, but made no attempt to follow.
"To-day ain't the only day!" he said to the men, closing his eyes to
ominous slits; and he stepped back into the cab and drove away.
That evening Tom had an answer to the letter he had written Mr. Baxter,
after having failed once more to find that gentleman in. It was of but a
single sentence.
After giving thorough consideration to your suggestion, I have
decided that it would be neither wise nor in good taste for me to
interfere in the affairs of your union.
Tom stared at the letter in amazement. Mr. Baxter had little to risk,
and much to gain. He could not understand. But, however obscure Mr.
Baxter's motive, the action necessitated by his decision was as clear
as a noon sun; a vital change had to be made in the letter to the
members of the union. Certain of Mr. Baxter's consent, Tom had set down
the guarantee to the men as the last paragraph in the letter and had
held the proof awaiting Mr. Baxter's formal authorization of its use. He
now cut out the paragraph that might have meant a thousand votes, and
mailed the sheet to Ruth.
He talked wherever he could all the next day, and the next evening.
After going home he sat up till almost one o'clock expecting Pete to
come in with the roster of the members. But Pete did not appear. Early
Sunday morning Tom was over at the Barrys'. Pete was not yet up, Mrs.
Barry told him. Tom softly opened the door of Pete's narrow room and
stepped in. Pete announced himself asleep by a mighty trumpeting. Tom
shook his shoulders. He stirred, but did not open his eyes. "Doan wan'
no breakfas'," he said, and slipped back into unconsciousness. Tom shook
him again, without response. Then he threw the covers back from Pig
Iron's feet and poured a little water on them. Pete sat suddenly
upright; there was a meteoric shower of language; then he recognized
Tom.
"Hello, Tom! What sort of a damned society call d'you call this?"
"If you only worked as hard as you sleep, Pete, you could put up a
building alone," said Tom, exasperated. "D'you get the book?"
"Over there." Pete pointed to a package lying on the floor.
Tom picked it up eagerly, sat down on the edge of the bed--Pete's
clothes were sprawling over the only chair--and hastily opened it.
Within the wrapping paper was the secretary's book.
"How'd you get it, Pete?"
"The amount o' licker I turned into spittoons last night, Tom, was
certainly an immoral waste. If I'd put it where it belonged, I'd be
drunk for life. Connelly, he'll never come to. Now, s'pose you chase
along, Tom, an' let me finish things up with my bed."
"What time d'you want the book again?"
"By nine to-night."
"Will you have any trouble putting it back in the office?"
"Sure not. While I had Connelly's keys I made myself one to his office.
I took a blank and a file with me last night."
At ten o'clock, the hour agreed upon, Tom was in Ruth's office. Ruth and
a business-looking woman of middle age, who was introduced as a Mrs.
Somebody, were already there when he came. Five boxes of envelopes were
stacked on a table, which had been drawn to the center of the room, the
letters were on a smaller table against one wall, and sheets of stamps
were on the top of Ruth's desk.
Tom was appalled when he saw what a quantity twenty-five hundred
envelopes were. "What! We can't write names on all those to-day!"
"It'll take the two of us about seven hours with you reading the names
to us," Ruth reassured him. "I had the letters come folded from the
printers. We'll put them in the envelopes and put on the stamps
to-morrow. They'll all be ready for the mail Monday night."
Until five o'clock, with half an hour off for lunch, the two women wrote
rapidly, Tom, on the opposite side of the table, reading the names to
them alternately and omitting the names of the adherents of Foley.
Now that she was with him again Ruth soon forgot all about Tom's
crudity. His purposeful power, which projected itself through even so
commonplace an occupation as reading off addresses, rapidly remade its
first impression. It dwarfed his crudity to insignificance.
When he left her at her door she gave him her hand with frank
cordiality. "You'll come Thursday evening then to tell me all about it
as you promised. When I see you then I'm sure it will be to congratulate
you."