The Ramrodders Part 46

In spite of the waiting Governor outside he started toward her, his arms outstretched, his heart rus.h.i.+ng to his lips. Her taunt--it seemed like that--made him desperate.

"Madeleine, I tried to tell you--I know it seemed a strange place, but I couldn't wait--I want to tell you now--"

She eluded him, and stopped him with a word. He was not impetuous enough to persist.

"Oh, you master of the art of love-making!" she cried. Pique mingled with mirth in her tone. "First, you propose to me in the midst of the mob; then you propose to me, bursting in like a messenger-boy, and yonder the Governor of this State, with anxious head out of his carriage window, scowling because you don't come along! Admirable occasions for pledging pa.s.sion and life-long devotion! Dear Harlan, your ingenuity must be puzzled by this time. I'll make a suggestion: fly over our house in a balloon and shout your declaration down the chimney. I'll sit in the fireplace from two to four, afternoons."

"I'll not be put off!" he cried.

"You shall be put out, and I'll do it!" Laughing, she took him by his arm and led him out into the hall. Protesting, he went. "I have some respect for the feelings of our Governor on a chilly afternoon, even if you haven't. You are excused from our little dinner. Go, now, Harlan.

I'm serious."

"There's one thing you have given me," he said, red, half-angry, and thoroughly subdued, "and that's the promise that I may take you to the legislative ball. That's to-morrow night--and we'll see!" He bolted out upon the steps.

"Delightful!" she cried after him. "What an opportunity the stage of City Hall will afford for another!" She shut the door before he could reply.

The Governor rallied him a bit on his disturbed looks as they rode on, but Harlan was in no mood to relish jokes on that subject.

Governor Waymouth had no other guests at dinner. He did not broach his business until they were seated in the little parlor of the modest mansion. The room had been converted into a study.

"To date the session has hardly been what you hoped--perhaps that's too strong a word--what you expected it would be, has it?" inquired the Governor, his earnestness showing that he was ready to begin. He did not wait for a reply.

"Matters have run in the old rut. Every one seems to be satisfied, eh--even the radicals in the prohibition movement? Isn't that so? Their men have introduced some new legislation, adding on more penalties that no officer will ever enforce--but the mere legislation satisfies 'em.

Everybody satisfied, apparently." The Governor uttered that last sentence in meditative manner. Then he straightened, and slapped his hand upon his chair-arm so suddenly that Harlan started. "But I am not satisfied!" he shouted. "I have let them run along. I have let them introduce their bills. I have waited for the lawmakers of this State and for the people to take some initiative. I gave them their call last fall in my letter. I hoped that some part of this State was awake. But those few who have shown some signs of civic interest have only pecked around the edges of reform. Nothing has been done, Harlan Thornton. Not one sweeping bill has been introduced. I have waited, hoping. I hoped the people would arise and help me with this burden. But I've waited in vain. There are only two more days in this session allowed for the introduction of new business.

"My boy, I talked first with you about my becoming Governor of this State. That's why I'm talking first with you about this matter. I shall call every man of this legislature to me and talk with him privately, and in that work I want your a.s.sistance. I want you to bring them to me.

I called you here to-night because to-morrow night folly and fas.h.i.+on will rule all in this city, and I must be there with the rest. Let me tell you, my boy, that when the men of this legislature awake, after that night of frivolity, it will be to open their eyes on some serious business. Not one word about what I intend to do until then. The session has been a very sweet cake till now--let the ball sugar-coat it!

There'll be bitter eating provided day after to-morrow!"

He waited a moment, recovering from sudden pa.s.sion.

"Ah," he said, gentle once more, "that sounds like senile raving. Pardon me. But while I've waited for the politicians of this State to show some signs of decency, waiting in vain, I've been swallowing back a lot of bitterness. No more of it! To our business now. I want you to know what is coming. I depend on you, as I have depended before, to be my master of ceremonies--and rather grim ceremonies they will be. For I have prepared several bills. You will introduce the House measures. I can depend on Senator Borden, from my county, for what I choose to have originate in the Senate. They are bills that will put our party and this State to the test of honesty. It's strange, isn't it, that what sounds so innocent should be so bitter?"

He opened a drawer in his desk. He took out papers and spread them before him. He selected one.

"Abolishment of fees (a blow at every grafting officeholder); no more railroad pa.s.ses for public officials; a bipartisan tax commission that shall haul the rich dodger out into the open--all these matters are covered here. But into your hands, young man, I put the one measure that is to be the most savage test of our honesty. I have put the most thought on it. Every lawyer in this State will try to find a flaw in it. But if I know anything about const.i.tutional law it is framed to beat them all. I'll not bother to read it to you. Carry it away, and guard it and study it."

He held it up, waving it. His heart was plainly full. He talked as one addressing the careless mult.i.tude--and talking, at the same time, to himself.

"You may divine what it is. It handles the great topic in our State. The source of dishonor, corruption, perjury, and hypocrisy! The prohibitory law! Let me tell what it will do when it has been enacted into law. It will make the Governor of this State the grand high sheriff to enforce personally and actively this one law; it's in our const.i.tution, and the State should enforce its own. He will have all the resources of the State treasury behind him. He shall have for the first time PROHIBITION.

Prohibition enforced, prohibition as the statutes have ordered it, prohibition in actuality instead of its pretence. The pretence has satisfied the rumsellers who sold, the rum-drinkers who drank, and the radicals who have boasted of the law, for all have got out of it what results were desired: appet.i.te was catered to, vanity was satisfied, and graft engendered for the benefit of the office-holding cla.s.s.

"I'm not going to predict what I think will be the result of this enforcement--not now. What I propose to do as an honest man is to put the prohibitory profession of this State to the test. When this is law, Luke Presson cannot pose as an honest man and continue to sell liquor to all-comers, he cannot bribe sheriff and police; I'll send my own men to smash every bottle in his place, and I'll put him into just as dark a cell as any Cheap John who peddles poison from his boot-leg. The rich man must stand on the level of the poor man. It's the test of our State's honesty--that bill is--and it shall be called 'The Thornton Law.'"

He arose, and placed the doc.u.ment in Harlan's hand.

The young man received it rather gingerly. He held it with somewhat the appearance of one who has the custody of a loaded weapon. His face expressed consternation rather than appreciation.

"Study the measure. I think you'll find it interesting. Introduce it in the House day after to-morrow. Our gallant lawmakers will be sleepy after the ball. That will wake 'em up." The old man's nostrils dilated.

He had the air of one who saw battle ahead and yearned for it.

"Move that it be referred to the Committee on Temperance," the Governor went on. "The fight will be on then and there, just as soon as they get their breath. They'll want to get it before a _safer_ gang! Let 'em refer it to the Judiciary Committee if they've got the votes to do so.

I'm not afraid they'll find any const.i.tutional flaws. And that first vote will give me a line on the general situation. I'll find out just what men need to have the gospel put to 'em straight!"

"Governor," stammered the young man, still holding the doc.u.ment at arm's-length, "wouldn't it be--don't you think a--a--some representative who has had more experience than I should be the one to see this bill through?"

"I want that bill sponsored by a man that I can trust absolutely. I'm sure of you, Harlan! When once it is introduced I'll see that you have plenty of help before the committee and on the floor."

It had come like a thunderclap on a moonlit night. It was sudden tempest prefaced by the lull of perfect calm. It was the signal to combat sounded when peace seemed a.s.sured. The young man perceived now how much of his early zeal had deserted him. He shrank from the task the Governor had a.s.signed to him. It was a blow that was aimed at the tenderest point of his own party; it was obliging the party, as the dominant power, to thrust upon the ma.s.s of the people the radical execution of a law which public opinion secretly opposed--that opinion even slyly welcoming the breach of it. And Governor Waymouth had emphasized what that new measure meant by citing the name of Luke Presson. It set the situation before Harlan in a flash. He was summoned to carry out his pledge of loyalty to Governor Waymouth by attacking the pet policy of nullification that kept his own party off the shoals to which extreme radicalism would surely drive it. The first man who would be hit--both as chairman of the party State Committee and in his personal interests--would be the man whose daughter he was seeking. Harlan wondered how that marriage proposal would sound, either on the heels or on the eve of the introduction of "the Thornton bill."

His uncertainty showed so plainly in his face that the Governor walked around his table and scrutinized him closely.

"My boy," he asked, "has the enemy captured you while you've been resting on your arms? Remember, there are slick and specious ways of making the wrong seem right in politics! I hope you haven't been tampered with!"

For a guilty moment Harlan remembered the admonitions of Madeleine Presson. He was promptly ashamed that they had come to his mind when the Governor spoke his fears.

"I'm going to tell you just why I'm a bit slow in this matter," he said, manfully. "It may seem a trivial reason to you, Governor Waymouth. I stopped to wonder how it would affect my friends.h.i.+p with the Presson family if I should introduce that bill."

"Oh, I see how the land lies! You can understand now how old I am--old and cold with all the romance burned out of me! I'd forgotten that there's anything except politics left in the world. So--" He paused, beaming kindly on the young man, and pursing his lips ready for the jocose supposition that Harlan foresaw and antic.i.p.ated.

"No," he declared, flus.h.i.+ng, "it isn't that way. It hasn't gone that far, Governor. I ask your pardon for mentioning my personal affairs, especially an affair of this sort. But I should be very sorry to break off my friends.h.i.+p with the Pressons."

The Governor went back to his chair, and sat down in it. He wrinkled his brows and took a long survey of his embarra.s.sed caller.

"I'm afraid I spoke of the case of our mutual friend Presson in rather harsh terms. It would not work like that. Of course, he would bow to the inevitable if such a law were pa.s.sed. But if it becomes a personal matter in any respect, Mr. Thornton, do you believe that any member of Presson's family would be offended if Presson were made to obey the law?"

"Well, if he persisted against the new law, it would be a pretty hard position for any fair person to defend," admitted the young man.

"I think we may depend on it that this young person, admittedly 'fair'--at my age I can be allowed to bestow that compliment--will respect your integrity. I do not command you to do the service--I cannot do that. But I shall be disappointed if you allow personal reasons to interfere with your public duties. I have depended on you to do it. I have only a few that I can trust."

At that instant, in the presence of this man who had sacrificed so much, Harlan felt that his own interests were too petty for consideration.

He put the doc.u.ment into his pocket.

"Forgive me for hesitating, Governor Waymouth. I'm afraid I'll never make a very good public servant. But I'll try to hold my eyes straight ahead after this."

"Keep the paper in your pocket. Think it all over. You're at the place every man reaches. What you want to do and what you ought to do split very sharply sometimes. I'll let you decide. I have no more to say."

Harlan walked back to the hotel, trying to adjust himself to this new phase of the question. Once more he had been called upon to lead the charge of the forlorn hope. He had not the same thrill of zealous loyalty as before. He was a little hurt because the Governor had made the affairs of his heart of so small importance. An old man's austerity could not understand, perhaps, but nevertheless Harlan felt that he was ent.i.tled to some consideration. He had not acquired an old man's calm poise--he was not entirely willing to put politics ahead of everything else, now that he found there were so many other things in life. Was it not true that the ma.s.s preferred to pay court to high ideals in the abstract, and bitterly resented any attempt by sincere individuals to enforce the actual? He understood rather vaguely that he would be applauded by the radicals--he had met their leaders and did not like them--he would get the applause the mob gives to "a well-meaning fellow," but more than all he would be sneered at behind his back as "a crank trying to reorganize human nature," and therefore to be shunned.

He had been mingling intimately with the chief men of the State; he knew what kind of comment they had for others. Most of all, he knew that the mild applause of the mob would not be loud enough to drown out those familiar voices nearest him--he had heard those voices many times before: there was his grandfather, there was Luke Presson, there were the political a.s.sociates with whom he had already begun to train on the basis of compromise.

There was Luke Presson's daughter!

He strode into the lobby of the hotel, his face gloomy and his thoughts dark. Linton stepped forward to meet him, hat and overcoat on. It was evident that he had been waiting. The sight of him did not improve Harlan's temper. From the first day of the session they had eyed each other malevolently. They had bristled at every possible point of contact. Linton's last exploit had been a speech favoring the railroad tax rebate, a speech in which he scored those who opposed it as enemies to the development of the State. The fervor of his eloquence had made even Harlan Thornton doubt, sourly, whether a const.i.tution that was framed before the exigencies of progress were dreamed of should be too rigidly construed. That was still another point where he and his grandfather disagreed, and the cogent speech of Linton had been the cause of further dispute between them. The Duke was disgusted because his grandson could be so scrupulous that he could not be progressive.

For Harlan the straight path of rect.i.tude was fringed with signs set there by friends, every sign inscribed "Fool." From the first, Linton had seemed to aggravate his difficulties, politically and personally.

"Can you give me a few minutes of your time?" he asked, stiffly.

"If it's business, and important, yes," returned Harlan, scowling.