"But your guess was too much of a hazard! You don"t win!"
However, Morrison turned on his heel and ran toward the private door. He appeared to be solving all difficulties by flight. It was plain that those in the room supposed so; their tension relaxed; the mayor of Marion was manifestly avoiding the ignominy of ejection from the Capitol by the militia--and that would be a fine piece of news to be bruited on the streets next day, if he had remained to force that issue!
Stewart flung open the door. But instead of stepping through he stepped back. "Come in," he called.
Paymaster Andrew Mac Tavish led the way, plodding stolidly, his neck particularly rigid. Delora Bunker, stenographer at St. Ronan"s mill, followed. Last came Patrolman Rellihan, his bulk nigh filling the door, his helmeted head almost sc.r.a.ping the lintel. He carried a night-stick that resembled a flail-handle rather than the usual locust club. Morrison slammed the door and Rellihan put his back against it.
There was a profound hush in the Executive Chamber. The feet of those who entered made no sound on the thick carpet. Those who were in the chamber offered evidence of the truism that there are situations where words fail to do justice to the emotions.
Morrison was the first to speak. He walked to the table before uttering a word; on his way across the room his eyes were on the keys. When he leaned on the table he put one hand over them. "This invasion seems outrageous, gentlemen. Undoubtedly it is. But I have tried another plan with you and it did not succeed. I had hoped that I would not need these a.s.sistants whom I have just called in."
"Totten, go bring the guard!" North"s voice was balefully subdued.
Rellihan looked straight ahead and twirled his stick.
"I apologize for stretching my special exception a bit, and introducing these guests past the boys at the door," Stewart went on. "I"m breaking the rules of politeness--and the rules of everything else, I"m afraid. But all rules seem to be suspended to-night!"
"Totten!" the Governor roared, pounding his fist on the arm of his chair.
Morrison gave the policeman a side-glance as if to inform himself that all was right with Rellihan.
Then he pulled a handy chair to the table and motioned to Miss Bunker. She sat down and opened her note-book.
"I have come here on business, gentlemen, and you must allow me to follow some of my business methods. The heat of argument often causes men to forget what has been said. I"m willing to leave what I may say to the record, and, in view of the fact that all this is public business, I trust I"ll have your co-operation along the same line. And there"s a young lady present," he added. "That fact will help us to get along wonderfully well together."
"What"s that devilish policeman doing at my door?" demanded the Governor, finding that his frantic gestures were not starting the adjutant-general on his way.
"Insuring complete privacy!" The mayor beamed on the Governor. "Nothing gets in--nothing gets out!"
North grabbed the telephone instrument on his desk.
One of Stewart"s hands was covering the keys; with the fingers of the other hand he had been fumbling under the edge of the desk. He suddenly pulled wires from the confining staples; he yanked a big mill-knife from his trousers pocket and cut the wires. North flung a dead instrument clattering on the broad table and found only oaths fit to apply to this perfectly amazing effrontery.
"You need not take, Miss Bunker!" The quiet dignity of Morrison and the rebuke the Governor found in the girl"s contemplative eyes choked off the profanity as effectively as would gripping fingers at his throat.
"I realize that all this is absolutely unprecedented--has never been done before--is unadulterated gall on my part, Governor North. Perhaps I haven"t a leg to stand on."
"Morrison, this infernal nonsense must cease!"
Senator Corson shouted, leaping from his chair and shaking both fists.
"You need not take, Miss Bunker!"
Corson gulped and surveyed the young lady, and found her eyes as disconcertingly rebuking as they had proved in the case of North.
"Not especially on account of the style of your language, Senator! But you are merely a visitor here, the same as I! At the present time your comments on the business between the Governor and myself can scarcely have any weight in the record."
"What in blazes is that business? Get it out of you!" commanded the other princ.i.p.al in the controversy.
"With pleasure! Thank you for coming down to the matter in hand. You may take, Miss Bunker.
"Governor North, I have been about among people this evening and--"
"You have been making incendiary speeches, and I demand to know what you have said and why you have said it!"
"I have no time now to go into those details. My business is more pressing, sir."
"You"re in cahoots with a mob! I saw you operating, with my own eyes, under my own roof," a.s.serted Senator Corson, violently.
"I have no time for discussing that matter." Morrison looked up at the clock on the wall. "This other business, I a.s.sert, is urgent."
Banker Daunt had been holding his peace, growling anathema to himself in the depths of a big chair.
He struggled to the edge of that chair. "I am in this building right now to warn the Governor of this state that you are playing your own selfish game to stifle enterprise and development and to discourage outside capital--hundreds of thousands of it--waiting to come in here."
"Pardon me, sir! I have no time to discuss water-power, either! Right now I"m submitting news instead of theories!" He faced the Governor again.
"That"s why I"m here--I"m bringing news. That news must put everything else to one side. We have minutes only to deal with the matter. And if we don"t use those minutes with all the wisdom that"s in us, the shame of our state will be on the wires of the world inside of an hour!"
His vehemence intimidated them. His manner as the bearer of ill tidings won what his appeals had not secured--an instant hearing.
"What I say will be a matter of record, and the blame will be placed where it belongs. You can"t claim that you didn"t have facts. I have been among the people. I have sent others among "em and I have received reports and I know what I am talking about. There"s a mob ma.s.sing down-town--a mob made up of many different elements! That kind of mob can"t be handled by mere arguments or by machine-guns. That mob must be shown! Talking won"t do any good. Just a moment! You won"t do what you ought to do, Governor, unless you have this thing driven straight at you! In that mob are the men who have voted for various members of the legislature who claim seats and whose seats are threatened. It"s a personal matter with those men. You can"t soft-soap "em to-night with promises of what the courts will do.
Several hundred huskies are on the way over here from the Agawam quarries Those men don"t care about this or that candidate. They have been paid to grab in on general principles--and they"re bringing sledge-hammers. In that mob, also, are the Red aliens who keep under cover till a row breaks out; any kind of trouble suits their purpose--and you know what their purpose is in regard to this government of ours. They"re coming, I tell you. They"re coming on to Capitol Hill!"
"And what have you been doing to stop "em, after all your promises of what you"d do?" raged North.
"I"ve been doing the best I could, with what loyal boys I could depend on.
But I want to know now what _you"re_ going to do?"
"Shoot every d.a.m.nation thug of "em who gets in range of our machine-guns.
Totten, hustle yourself down-stairs and see that it"s done!"
"Genera! Totten will not leave this room--not now! You"re all wrong, Governor."
"That"s the way a mob was handled in one state in this Union not so very long ago, and the Governor was right! He was hailed from one end of the country to the other as right!"
"The principle behind him was right--that"s what you mean, Governor North.
That was just the point he made!"
"Do you dare to stand there and intimate that I haven"t got principle behind me? Statute law, election law?"
Morrison glanced again at the clock; then he tossed a bomb into the argument. "The principle in this instance is a pretty wabbly backing, sir.
I"m afraid that even my loyal boys will join the mob if the news gets out about those election returns in certain districts--the returns that were sent back secretly to be corrected."
The bomb had all the effect that Morrison hoped for. His Excellency slumped back in his chair and "pittered" his lips wordlessly.
"I don"t think the news has actually got out among the general public, but it"s apt to leak any minute, sir. You can"t afford to take chances."
"Such slander is preposterous!" Corson a.s.serted. "What used to be done--reviving old stories--I say that our party will not lend its countenance to any such tricks." In his excitement he had dropped an admission as to the past in politics while offering a disclaimer as to the present.