And I warn you, Doris, that I"m about at the end of my endurance."
Mrs. Stanton sat back and gritted her teeth.
The car traversed a boulevard; the arc-lights showed that it was deserted.
A narrow street, empty of humankind, led to the west portico. That entrance, so Lana knew, was used almost wholly by the State House employees. The door was closed; n.o.body was in sight.
"If you insist on the venture, I"ll go with you, of course," offered the young man. When the car stopped he stepped out.
"I"m afraid you"ll only make it harder for me, Coventry. I know the captain of the guard. But it will never do for me to bring a stranger."
She hurried into the shadow of the portico. "Get back into the car! You must! Wallace, drive Mrs. Stanton and Mr. Daunt to the house."
When Coventry protested indignantly she broke in: "I haven"t any time to argue with you. We may be watched. Wait at the corner yonder with the car.
If you see me go in, take Doris home and send the car back. Wallace, I"ll find you down there at the fountain!" She designated with a toss of her hand the statuary, gleaming in the starlight, and when the car moved on she ran up the steps of the State House.
The big door had neither bell nor knocker. She turned her back on it and kicked with the heel of her slipper.
The voice that inquired "Who"s there?" revealed that the warder was not wholly sure of his nerves.
"I am Senator Corson"s daughter!"
She received no reply.
"I tell you I am Senator Corson"s daughter! I want to come in. My father is there!"
She was answered by a different voice; she recognized it. It was the unmistakable drawl and nasal tw.a.n.g of Perley Wyman. Her girlhood memories of Perley"s voice had been freshened very recently because he had been a.s.signed to the Corson mansion by Thompson the florist as her chief aide in decorating for the reception. "Wal, I should say he was here--and then some! This was the door he came in through."
"Open it! Open it at once, Perley Wyman!"
"I dunno about that, Miss Corson! We"ve got orders about politicians and mobbers--"
"I"m neither. I command you to open this door."
"Who else is there?"
"I"m alone."
Soldier Wyman pulled the bolts and opened. "I ain"t feeling like taking any more chances with the Corson family this evening," he admitted, with a grin that set his long jaw awry. "Your father nigh cuffed my head up to a peak when I tried to tell him what my orders were."
Miss Corson was not interested in the troubles of Guard Wyman. He was talking through a narrow crack; she set her hands against the door and pushed her way in. "Where is my father? What trouble is he in?"
"I reckon it can"t be any kind of trouble but what he"ll be capable of taking care of himself in it all right," opined the guard, fondling his cheek with the back of his hand. "But there ain"t any trouble in here, Miss Corson. It"s all serene as a canned sardine that was canned for the siege of Troy, as it said in the opery the High School Cadets put on that year you was in the--"
"There"s a mob in front of the State House!"
"It"ll stay there," stated Wyman, remaining as serene as the comestible he had mentioned. "The St. Ronan"s Rifles can"t be backed down by any mob. We have been ordered to shoot, and that kind of a gang in this city might as well learn its lesson to-night as any other night. It"s getting time to do a lot of law-and-order shooting in this country."
The girl, harrowed by her apprehensions, was not in the mood to discuss affairs with this amateur belligerent. But his complacency in his bloodthirsty att.i.tude was peculiarly exasperating in her case. He seemed to typify that unreasonable spirit of slaughter that disdained to employ the facilities of good sense first of all. This florist"s clerk, whom she had last seen on a step-ladder with his mouth full of tacks, was talking of shooting down his fellow-civilians as if there were no other alternative.
"My father may be in danger in this State House, but I"m glad he is here.
He is not condoning this! He is not allowing this shame! Who is the lunatic who is threatening my father and bringing disgrace on this state?"
She remembered the Senator"s a.s.sertion over the telephone and, in her eagerness for news, she was willing to start with the humble Soldier Wyman.
She realized suddenly that her spirit of fiery protest was provoking her into an argument that might seem rather ridiculous if somebody in real authority should overhear her talking to Wyman and his mate. The portico door opened into a remote corridor.
"The only lunatic, up to date, Miss Corson, has been a Canuck who had a knock-down and drag-out with a settee and--"
Lana was not finding Wyman"s statement especially convincing in the way of establishing faith in his sanity. "I thank you for letting me in! I must find my father."
The interior of the Capitol building was familiar ground to her.
It occurred to her sense of discretion that it might be well to avoid Captain Sweetsir in his new exaltation as a military martinet. She found a narrow, curving stairway which served employees.
On the second floor, hastening along the dimly lighted corridors, turning several corners, she reached the s.p.a.cious hall outside the Senate lobby.
She paused for a moment. From the hall she could look down the broad, main stairway which conducted to the rotunda. The rumble of trucks had attracted her attention. Soldiers were moving a machine-gun; they lined it up with two others that were already facing the great doors of the main entrance. She had half hoped that her father was in the rotunda, using his influence and his wisdom, now that the mob was threatening the building outside those great doors. She did not understand just how the Senator would be able to operate, she admitted to herself, but she felt that his manly advice could prevail in keeping his fellow-citizens from murdering one another!
In the gloom below her she saw only soldiers and uniformed Capitol watchmen.
Across from her in the upper hall where she waited there was the entrance to the wing which contained the Executive Chambers. Two men, one of whom was talking earnestly, came along the corridor from the direction of the chambers. Still mindful of what Tasper had said about the State House rules of that evening, she did not want to take chances with others who might be less amenable than Florist-Clerk Wyman. There were high-backed chairs in the corners of the hall; she hid herself behind the nearest chair. Her dark fur coat and the twilight concealed her effectually.
"General Totten, if you don"t fully comprehend your plain duty in this crisis, you"d better stop right here with me until you do. We can"t afford to have those soldiers overhear. Are you going to order them to march out of this State House?" This peremptory gentleman was Stewart Morrison!
Lana choked back what threatened to be an exclamation.
"I refuse to take that responsibility on myself."
"You must! Such a command to state troops must come from you, the adjutant-general."
"This is a political exigency, Mister Mayor!"
"It seems like that to me!"
"It requires martial law."
"But not civil war."
"This building is threatened by a mob."
"That"s because you have put it in a state of siege against citizens."
"There"s no telling what those men will do if they are allowed to enter."
"They"ll do worse if they are kept out by guns."
"It means wreck and rampage if they are permitted to come through those doors."
"Look here, Totten, this State House has stood here for a good many years, with the citizens coming and going in it at will. I don"t see any dents!"
"This is an exigency, and it"s different, sir. The state must a.s.sert its authority."