The Ancient Law Part 21

"I begin to understand," remarked Ordway, laughing, "why you are not what might be called a successful lover."

"It isn't because I don't know the way," returned Banks gloomily, "it's because I can't practice it even after I've planned it out. Don't I lie awake at night making up all sorts of speeches I'm going to say to her in the morning? Oh, I can be indifferent enough when I'm dressing before the mirror--I've even put on a purple cravat because she hated it, but I've always taken it off again before I went downstairs to breakfast.

Then as soon as I lay my eyes upon her, I feel my heart begin to swell as if it would burst out of my waistcoat, and instead of the flippant speeches I've planned, I crawl and whimper just as I did the day before."

They were seated under a cherry tree by the side of the road which led to Tappahannock, and as Banks finished his confessions, a large, dust covered buggy was seen approaching them from the direction of the town.

As Ordway recognised Baxter through the cloud of dust raised by the wheels, he waved his hat with a shout of welcome, and a minute later the buggy reached them and drew up in the patch of briars upon the roadside.

"I was just on my way to see you, Smith," said Baxter, as he let fall the reins and held out his great dirty hand, "but I'm too heavy to get out, and if I once sat down on the ground, I reckon it would take more than the whole of Tappahannock to pull me up again."

"Well, go ahead to Cedar Hill," suggested Ordway, "and we'll follow you at a brisk walk."

"No, I won't do that. I can say what I have got to say right here over the wheel, if you'll stand awhile in the dust. Major Leary was in to see me again this morning, and the notion he's got in his head now is that you're the man to run for Mayor of Tappahannock."

"I!" exclaimed Ordway, drawing back slightly as he spoke. "He forgets that I'm out of the question. I refuse, of course."

"Well, you see, he says you're the only man we've got strong enough to defeat Jasper Trend--and he's as sure as shot that you'd have something like a clean walk-over. He's already drawn up a big red flag with 'The People's Candidate: Ten Commandment Smith,' upon it. I asked him why he wouldn't put just plain 'Daniel,' but he said that little Biblical smack alone was worth as much as a bushel of votes to you. If you drew the line at 'Ten Commandment' he's going to subst.i.tute 'Daniel-in-the-Lions'-Den Smith' or something of that kind."

"Tell him to stop it," broke in Ordway, with a smothered anger in his usually quiet voice, "he's said nothing to me about it, and I decline it absolutely and without consideration!"

"You mean you won't run?" inquired Baxter, in astonishment.

"I mean I won't run--I can't run--put it any way you please."

"I thought you'd put your whole heart and soul into defeating Trend."

"I have, but not that way--where's Trenton whom we've been talking of all summer?"

"He's out of it--consumption, the doctor says--anyway he's going South."

"Then there's but one other man," said Ordway, decisively, "and that's Baxter."

"Me?" said Baxter softly, "you mean me, do you say?" His chuckle shook the buggy until it creaked upon its rusty wheels. "I can't," he added, with a burst of humour, "to tell the truth, I'm afraid."

"Afraid?" repeated Ordway, "you're afraid of Jasper Trend?"

"No," said Baxter, "it ain't Jasper--it's my wife."

He winked slowly as he caught Ordway's eyes, and then picking up the reins, made a movement as if to turn back to Tappahannock. "So you're dead sure then that you can't be talked over?" he asked.

"As sure as you are," returned Ordway promptly; then as the buggy started back in the direction from which it had come, he went over to Banks, who had risen to his feet and was leaning heavily against the cherry tree, with the long blade of gra.s.s still between his teeth.

"What do you think of their wanting to make me Mayor, Banks?" he inquired, with a laugh.

Banks started from his gloomy reverie. "Mayor!" he exclaimed almost with animation. "Why, they've shown jolly good sense, that's what I think!"

"Well, you needn't begin to get excited," responded Ordway, "for I didn't accept, and you won't have to quarrel either with me or with Jasper Trend."

"There's one thing you may be sure of," said Banks with energy, "and that is that I'd quarrel with Jasper every time."

"In spite of Milly?" laughed Ordway.

"In spite of Milly," repeated Banks in an awed but determined voice; "she may manage my hair and my cravats and my life to come, but I'll be darned if she's going to manage my vote!"

"All the same I'm glad you can honestly stick to Jasper," said Ordway, "he counts on you now, doesn't he?"

"Oh, I suppose so," returned Banks, without enthusiasm; "at any rate, I think he'd rather she'd marry me than Brown."

There was a moment's silence in which the name brought no a.s.sociation into Ordway's consciousness. Then in a single flas.h.i.+ng instant the truth leaped upon him, and the cornfields across the road surged up to meet his eyes like the waves of a high sea.

"Than whom?" he demanded in so loud a tone that Banks fell back a step and looked at him with blinking eyelids.

"Than marry whom?" asked Ordway for the second time, dropping his voice almost to a whisper before the blank surprise in the other's face.

"Oh, his name's Brown--Horatio Brown--I thought I'd told you," answered Banks, and he added a moment later, "you've met him, I believe."

"Yes," said Ordway, with an effort, "he's the handsome chap who came here last June, isn't he?"

"Oh, he's handsome enough," admitted Banks, and he groaned out presently. "You liked him, didn't you?"

Ordway smiled slightly as he met the desperation in the other's look.

"I like him," he answered quietly, "as much as I like a toad."

CHAPTER VI

IN WHICH BAXTER PLOTS

When Baxter reached the warehouse the following morning, he found Major Leary pacing restlessly back and forth under the brick archway, with the regular military step at which, during the four years' war, he had marched into battle.

"Come in, sir, come in and sit down," said Baxter, leading the way into his office, and sweeping a pile of newspapers from an armchair with a hospitable gesture.

"Have you seen Smith? and is he all right?" were the Major's first words, as he placed his hat upon the table and took a quick, impatient turn about the room before throwing himself into the chair which the other had emptied. He was a short, erect, nervous man, with a fiery face, a pair of small gray eyes, like steel points, and a long white moustache, discoloured where it overhung his mouth by the faint yellow stain of tobacco.

"Oh, I've see him," answered Baxter in a soothing voice, "but he won't run--there's no use talking. He's dead set against it."

"Won't run?" cried the Major, furiously. "Nonsense, sir, he must run.

There's no help for it. Did you tell him that we'd decided that he should run?"

"I told him," returned Baxter, "but, somehow, it didn't look as if he were impressed. He was so positive that he would not even let me put in a word more on the subject. 'Are you dead sure, Smith?' I said, and he answered, 'I'm as dead sure as you are yourself, Baxter.'"

The Major crossed his knees angrily, stretched himself back in his chair, and began pulling nervously at the ends of his moustache.

"Well, I'll have to see him myself," he said authoritatively.

"You may see him as much as you please," replied Baxter, with a soft, offended dignity, "but I'll be mightily surprised, sir, if you get him to change his mind."