The Ramrodders Part 7

"Let me see your warrant, Niles," he requested. The officer pa.s.sed it over, with a touch of sudden humility in his demeanor. "I'm only doing my duty as it's laid out by the statutes," he muttered. He quailed under the old man's eyes. He did not like the sound of the mumbling at the windows nor relish the looks of the men who had just come flocking into the yard at the heels of Sylvester.

"'Twas sworn out and pa.s.sed to me," stated the sheriff.

"Sworn out on complaint of Tom w.i.l.l.y." He looked above the doc.u.ment and saw in the doorway the man who had cried information regarding the liquor in the cellar. "Tom w.i.l.l.y, the cheapest drunkard we've got in the town, taking sneaking revenge because he has been shut off from privileges here that decent men haven't abused! But I tell you, gentlemen, even Tom w.i.l.l.y isn't as cheap as the men who have sneaked behind him and prodded him on to do this. There's some one behind him, for Tom w.i.l.l.y hasn't got brains enough nor sprawl enough to do this all by himself."

He gave the warrant back to the sheriff. He had recovered his self-possession. He was again their Duke of Fort Canibas, who could retire with dignity even from such a position as this. "Go ahead and train with your crowd, Sheriff Niles," he drawled, sarcastically--"Tom w.i.l.l.y, and whoever they are behind him that are too ashamed to show themselves!"

He started for the door, Luke Presson at his heels. Aunt Charette, not exactly understanding, realized that the protecting aegis was departing.

"But I have pay!" she wailed. "You have de power, M'sieu' Thornton! They take my properties!"

He patted the s.h.i.+ny silk of the old woman's shoulder as he pa.s.sed her.

"Keep your sitting, Aunt Charette," he advised, "and let them take it.

It will be a good investment for you--leave it to me."

He lighted a fresh cigar out-of-doors.

"Luke," he declared quietly between puffs, "this is developing into quite a caucus day--take all tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. I'm glad you are here to look on!"

CHAPTER V

A CAUCUS, AS IT WAS PLANNED

The town house of Fort Canibas needed no guide-board that day. All roads led to it. Thelismer Thornton walked down the main street, his following at his heels. His hands were behind his back, and he sauntered along like one who was at peace with the world. His face was serene once more.

He seemed to have recovered all the genial good-nature that men a.s.sociated with Thelismer Thornton. The chairman trotted on short legs at his side, looking up at him sourly. Thornton smiled down at him.

"Finding your old State campaign sicker than you thought for, hey, Luke?"

He was now as Presson had always known him, but the little man did not seem to be consoled thereby.

"I'd like to know what's come over you to-day?" he complained. "Giving a helpless little girl h.e.l.l-an'-repeat, and then standing for what you did back there right now!"

"Luke, both of us have seen a great many men lose their dignity fighting hornets. But I've come to myself, and I've stopped running and swatting.

Well, Briggs, what is it?"

The man who had brought the alarm to Aunt Charette's was crowding close, plainly with something to say.

"I only wanted to tell you, Squire, that Sheriff Niles brought in word to the boys that high-uppers was back of him."

"Thinks he's running with the pack, eh? Well, Briggs, that's hardly news about Bart Niles."

"Thought I'd warn you, Squire. He says things ain't goin' on runnin' in this State the way they have been runnin'. Way he talks, him and them back of him think they've got you layin' with all four paws in the air.

But we in the village here, that's behind you, don't understand it that way. Nor we can't figger what started it."

"Don't bother your heads about it to-day, Briggs. Simply stand by and be ready to grab in, you and the boys. That's all."

The post-office was in the lower story of the town house. The walls were brick to the second story. This upper part was a barn-like structure propped on the lower walls. Broad outside stairs led up to it.

Thornton and Presson were obliged to push their way through a crowd to reach the foot of the stairway. They were stopped there by an obstruction. Some men were lifting off a low wagon a cripple in a wheel-chair. He had an in-door pallor that made him seem corpselike. A man in a frock-coat and with a ministerial white tie was bossing the job.

The Duke stopped and gazed on the work amiably. The man of the white tie scowled.

"Raising a few reliable Republicans from the dead, are you, elder?"

inquired the Duke, pleasantly.

The elder did not reply until he had started the cripple's chair b.u.mping up the stairs. Then he turned on Thornton. He was not amiable.

"It's time some of the voters with honest convictions got a chance to attend a caucus in this district, even if they have to be brought from beds of pain."

Thelismer Thornton did not lose his smile.

"I'd like to have you meet the Rev. Enoch Dudley, evangelist, Luke. This is Mr. Presson, chairman of the State Committee, elder. Now that you're getting into politics you'd ought to be acquainted with your chief priest."

But Rev. Mr. Dudley, not approving the company that the State chairman was keeping, did not warm up.

"I thank you for your pleasantries, Mr. Thornton," he returned, stiffly.

"I hope your sneers may make you as many votes to-day as they have in the past."

"Well, they won't," blurted a voice from a knot of men at the foot of the stairs. "We're getting woke up in this district. And it ain't going to be an empire any longer."

"I'm rather too humble a man, sir, to a.s.sociate with the high lords of politics," Mr. Dudley remarked to the chairman. "The Honorable Thornton has always been up there. I'm simply one of the plain people."

"And it's time for the plain people to have their innings," declared another in the crowd.

"The pack is off!" muttered the Duke in Presson's ear.

"Why don't you introduce him right," called another. "Reverend Dudley is the next representative from this district, Mr. Chairman. And we know where _he_ stands!"

"An humble little platform is mine," stated the minister. "But it's down where all can step aboard with me. That's all I can say."

There was a growl of approval in chorus from the larger group at the foot of the stairs. Thornton's men were at one side and looked troubled.

"War Eagle" Ivus Niles stepped forth then. He had recovered his buck sheep. He was hoa.r.s.e, but still full of zeal.

"I want to ask you this, Tyrant Thornton: You ain't quite so sure that you're Lord Gull, monarch of all you survey, since my brother Bartholomew showed you the power of the law triumphant, are you?" But the taunt did not alter the tolerant smile on the Duke's face.

"Go ahead and get in all your yelps," he said, under his breath. "A hound loves company."

"When we start in to purify, we propose to purify in good shape!" cried another. "And a reverend elder ain't a mite too good for us as representative to the legislature."

"Some people think they are purifying when they burn a rag," observed the Duke, serenely. He lighted another cigar, beaming through the smoke on the glowering minister.

"Don't take that wrong, elder. I respect decency in politics. I respect men who are trying to clean things up. But before I'll let you disinfect _me_, I'll have to see your license and know what system you're using."