The Woman Who Vowed Part 19

"You needn't dislike her," said Ariston, "any more than you need dislike a stone that breaks your leg."

"I cannot but think, however," said Campbell, "that the punishment was out of proportion to the offense."

"No," said Ann, to my great surprise. "You must not say that. No one has suffered more from Harmes' confinement in the colony than I, and yet I am bound to say that violence is to my mind--and to the mind of all of us women--so dangerous a thing that I prefer my son should be an innocent victim than that it should go unpunished."

We had a delicious bottle of California Burgundy with our birds, and I asked whether this was provided by the state.

"Fortunately," said Campbell, "the state has never taken the vineyards out of the hands of those who owned them at the time of the new const.i.tution. It monopolizes the distillation of liquor, but all wines not containing more than six per cent alcohol are produced by individual enterprise. The owners have to contribute a stipulated quota to the state, as in the case of all agricultural products. The surplus belongs to them; but as the money they get from the state has no value two years after issue, we find in this very cla.s.s the best customers for our bank."

We had by this time finished our dinner; the coffee and cigars were before us, and the company settled themselves for a long talk on the working of their system, all of which was of great interest to me, a traveller from the past.

The minutes pa.s.sed rapidly in this interesting exchange of experiences until Anna and Ann, who had long shown signs of _ennui_, arose to depart, and Ariston, noting their desire to leave, paid the bill and we left.

CHAPTER XXI

THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE

Meanwhile, the investigating committee had been appointed, and the day came when witnesses were to be examined. The committee sat in the afternoon only, so as to make it possible for all to attend without sacrificing their state work. Masters, of course, was there, Chairo, too, and Ariston, who continued to act for Chairo. Ariston had consulted with me as to the wisdom of preparing Masters for the testimony implicating Neaera, which we knew would be elicited. But I preferred to allow events to take their course.

The first witness called was one of those who had attacked the House of Detention and been wounded. He had clearly remained devoted to Chairo; for to every question put to him, which tended to implicate Chairo, he displayed astonis.h.i.+ng forgetfulness; but as soon as the examination bore upon my interview with Balbus, at which he had been present, he stated every circ.u.mstance exactly as it had happened, except that he was, perhaps, more severe on Neaera than she deserved.

"She would not allow Balbus to speak," he said. "She walked right over from the corner where she was writing and wouldn't allow Balbus to say a word."

He even insisted that it was Neaera who had ordered my arrest, and personally supervised the act of binding me to the chair.

Masters' brow grew dark at this attack on Neaera, and he undertook to cross-examine the witness, but did it clumsily and ineffectually. His princ.i.p.al effort was to induce the witness to admit that Neaera had already received orders from Chairo that an attempt at rescue was to be made whatever apparently contradictory messages might be received, whether purporting to come from him, Chairo, or from others.

This line of cross-examination incensed Chairo who was indirectly charged by it with having sent me on a message for the purpose of a.s.suming an air of innocence, when he all the time intended the attempt at rescue to be made.

Ariston with great difficulty kept Chairo from angry interruption; and on redirect examination, which he was allowed in Chairo's interest to conduct, strengthened the evidence of Chairo's good faith.

The next witness was clearly of Hibernian descent, for he at once took the entire committee and audience into his confidence. "I'll tell you all about it," he said. "I'm the janitor of the 'Liberty' offices, and I know all about it from the beginning."

He then proceeded to give a complete history of his own life from the earliest years he could remember, and he a.s.sured us that he would go still further back if he could; that he had nothing to conceal from the committee, and would tell them "all about it from the very beginning."

Over and over again he was interrupted by the committee, who complained of the irrelevancy of his testimony. "And would you have me hold anything back?" he said indignantly. "Haven't I sworn to tell the whole truth as well as nothing but the truth?"

"We only want to hear you in connection with the organization and arming of forces by Chairo with a view to violence and the subsequent attempt upon the House of Detention."

"And haven't I known Chairo all my life," responded the witness triumphantly, "and isn't that just what I'm telling you? Just leave me quiet," he added, "and I'll tell you the whole thing from the beginning."

The committee, thinking time would in the end be saved, gave the witness rope, of which he was not slow to take advantage, for he interlarded his narrative with stories so comic that the committee was at last obliged to interfere again. But his wit was equal to every emergency, and after an hour spent in the futile effort to extract information from him, he was released. A broad wink at Chairo as he left the witness box set the audience in a roar, but did not help Chairo's case.

The third witness was another of the party which had attacked the House of Detention, and he clearly was actuated by no desire to s.h.i.+eld Chairo, for he testified to details so damaging to him that no one had any longer any doubt as to Chairo having organized a vast conspiracy against the State. He had himself been one of Chairo's lieutenants, and he gave the names of the men that had joined him, the weapons that had been secured, the date of his first instructions from Chairo, and their tenor; in fact, nothing was left untold. He was not present when I carried Chairo's message to Balbus.

Ariston cross-examined him with great skill, tripped him up as to some of his dates and details, and even threw some confusion into his testimony regarding the character of the instructions. But as to the main facts his testimony was unshaken.

The examination and cross-examination of these three witnesses occupied the whole of the first day; and as Chairo, Ariston, and I returned slowly to our quarters we found it difficult to speak. Chairo was still angry with Masters, and expressed himself on the subject in a few explosive sentences. Ariston reminded Chairo that Masters was an old admirer of Neaera's, and I felt almost guilty at withholding from them that he had actually married her.

After our plunge, Ariston and I brightened up a little, but Chairo remained profoundly depressed.

"The fact is," he said, "I am beginning to look at things from a different point of view. This military organization of ours was a gigantic mistake."

"Violence can only be justified," said Ariston, "by some public necessity or injustice; no isolated personal grievance can possibly justify it."

"We thought that this whole Demetrian cult had become a social evil, but others evidently do not."

Chairo's manner had so changed from what it was when I first met him among the hills of Tyringham that my mind was set upon inquiring as to the cause, and I could not help suspecting that his misgivings were for the most part due to Lydia.

I felt that I was _de trop_ and found some excuse for leaving them.

Later Ariston told me that although Chairo was profoundly discouraged, strange to say, he had expressed little concern about himself or his political aims; what he used to describe as "The Cause," and really meant his own ambition, seemed to have entirely pa.s.sed out of his mind; his whole concern now was for Lydia.

The examination of witnesses during the next few days resulted in a confirmation of all the facts brought out on the first day; Chairo had clearly undertaken a vast and dangerous conspiracy against the state; he had, in good faith, sought at the last moment to prevent violence, and Neaera was wholly responsible for the attempt at rescue. Masters and his following alone persisted in endeavoring to s.h.i.+eld Neaera. According to them, instructions had been given by Chairo to both Balbus and Neaera that in case of any accident happening to himself, the attempt was to be made to rescue him, and that this attempt was to serve as an excuse for the violence which they felt indispensable to the defeat of the Demetrian cult.

As the examination was drawing to a close, Ariston pointed out to me that I was probably the only man who could persuade Masters of his mistake; he also urged that not only Chairo's fate hung in the balance but Lydia's also.

Ariston told me that Lydia's letters to him plainly showed that her own hopes as to the pa.s.sage of the amnesty bill had come to an end, and that the subject under discussion between them now was what they should do in case the amnesty bill was not pa.s.sed.

While we were talking over the matter in our apartment, we were astonished to receive the visit of Masters, for of late Masters had failed to recognize any of our party in the courthouse, and we feared that the issue regarding Neaera's responsibility had occasioned a permanent break in the ranks of the opposition.

When Masters entered the room he made no pretense of cordiality; he apologized conventionally for intruding, and explained that his visit was due to a letter received from Neaera that day, in which she had urged him to see me, as she was convinced I could set his mind at rest regarding her innocence.

I perceived without difficulty that Neaera must have been reduced to desperate straits in order to have recourse to such a reckless measure, and that the correspondence between Masters and her must have betrayed considerable doubt in Masters's mind as to the truth of her statements concerning her connection with the business. I was determined to learn from Masters as far as possible what was his present att.i.tude to Neaera.

So I asked:

"You have heard the witnesses; what is your own impression of the matter?"

"You could not expect me to believe them, could you?"

There was an expression of agony on Masters's brow which made me feel strongly drawn to him.

"Shall Ariston stay while we talk about this?" asked I.

"Yes," said Masters, turning to Ariston. "It is well that you should know that Neaera is my wife."

Ariston put up both hands with an involuntary expression of dismay, the significance of which Masters did not fail to take in. He looked at me half in despair, half in inquiry.

"Ariston understands now," I said, "why you have undertaken to vindicate Neaera."

"I should have undertaken to vindicate her in any event," answered Masters. "She is a woman, and a concerted effort is being directed toward making a scapegoat of her."

"The witnesses," I answered, "are certainly unanimous on the subject."

"From what you say," Masters said, "I gather that you do not disbelieve them."