Again he shifted his cigar. "Well, when I prophesy, it"s inspired," he went on. "And you can take it as the word that came unto Hosea, that a woman lawyer settling in Westville is going to raise the very d.i.c.kens in this old town!"
CHAPTER VI
THE LADY LAWYER
When old Hosie had withdrawn with his expectorative plunder, Katherine sat down at the desk and gazed thoughtfully out of her window, taking in the tarnished dome of the Court House that rose l.u.s.treless above the elm tops and the heavy-boned farmhorses that stood about the iron hitch-racks of the Square, stamping and switching their tails in dozing warfare against the flies.
Once more, she began to go over the case. Having decided to test all possible theories, she for the moment pigeon-holed the idea of a mistake, and began to seek for other explanations. For a s.p.a.ce she vacantly watched the workmen tearing down the speakers" stand. But presently her eyes began to glow, and she sprang up and excitedly paced the little office.
Perhaps her father had unwittingly and innocently become involved in some large system of corruption! Perhaps this case was the first symptom of the existence of some deep-hidden munic.i.p.al disease!
It seemed possible--very possible. Her two years with the Munic.i.p.al League had taught her how common were astute dishonest practices. The idea filled her. She began to burn with a feverish hope. But from the first moment she was sufficiently cool-headed to realize that to follow up the idea she required intimate knowledge of Westville political conditions.
Here she felt herself greatly handicapped. Owing to her long residence away from Westville she was practically in ignorance of public affairs--and she faced the further difficulty of having no one to whom she could turn for information. Her father she knew could be of little service; expert though he was in his specialty, he was blind to evil in men. As for Blake, she did not care to ask aid from him so soon after his refusal of a.s.sistance. And as for others, she felt that all who could give her information were either hostile to her father or critical of herself.
For days the idea possessed her mind. She kept it to herself, and, her suspicious eyes sweeping in all directions, she studied as best she could to find some evidence or clue to evidence, that would corroborate her conjecture. In her excited hope, she strove, while she thought and worked, to be indifferent to what the town might think about her. But she was well aware that Old Hosie"s prophecy was swift in coming true--that a storm was raging, a storm of her own s.e.x. It should be explained, however, in justice to them, that they forgot the fact, or never really knew it, that she had been forced to take her father"s case. To be sure, there was no open insult, no direct attack, no face-to-face denunciation; but piazzas buzzed indignantly with her name, and at the meeting of the Ladies" Aid the poor were forgotten, as at the Missionary Society were the unbibled heathen upon the foreign sh.o.r.e.
Fragments of her sisters" p.r.o.nouncements were wafted to Katherine"s ears. "No self-respecting, womanly woman would ever think of wanting to be a lawyer"--"A forward, brazen, unwomanly young person"--"A disgrace to the town, a disgrace to our s.e.x"--"Think of the example she sets to impressionable young girls; they"ll want to break away and do all sorts of unwomanly things"--"Everybody knows her reason for being a lawyer is only that it gives her a greater chance to be with the men."
Katherine heard, her mouth hardened, a certain defiance came into her manner. But she went straight ahead seeking evidence to support her suspicion.
Every day made her feel more keenly her need of intimate knowledge about the city"s political affairs; then, unexpectedly, and from an unexpected quarter, an informant stepped out upon her stage. Several times Old Hosie Hollingsworth had spoken casually when they had chanced to pa.s.s in the building or on the street. One day his lean, stooped figure appeared in her office and helped itself to a chair.
"I see you haven"t exactly made what Charlie Horn, in his dramatic criticisms, calls an uproarious and unprecedented success," he remarked, after a few preliminaries.
"I have not been sufficiently interested to notice," was her crisp response.
"That"s right; keep your back up," said he. "I"ve been agin about everything that"s popular, and for everything that"s unpopular, that ever happened in this town. I"ve been an "agin-er" for fifty years.
They"d have tarred and feathered me long ago if there"d been any leading citizen unstingy enough to have donated the tar. Then, too, I"ve had a little money, and going through the needle"s eye is easy business compared to losing the respect of Westville so long as you"ve got money--unless, of course," he added, "you"re a female lawyer. I tell you, there"s no more fun than stirring up the animals in this old town. Any one unpopular in Westville is worth being friends with, and so if you"re willing----"
He held out his thin, bony hand. Katherine, with no very marked enthusiasm, took it. Then her eyes gleamed with a new light; and obeying an impulse she asked:
"Are you acquainted with political conditions in Westville?"
"Me acquainted with----" He cackled. "Why, I"ve been setting at my office window looking down on the political circus of this town ever since Noah run aground on Mount Ararat."
She leaned forward eagerly.
"Then you know how things stand?"
"To a T."
"Tell me, is there any rotten politics, any graft or corruption going on?" She flushed. "Of course, I mean except what"s charged against my father."
"When Blind Charlie Peck was in power, there was more graft and dirty----"
"Not then, but now?" she interrupted.
"Now? Well, of course you know that since Blake run Blind Charlie out of business ten years ago, Blake has been the big gun in this town."
"Yes, I know."
"Then you must know that in the last ten years Westville has been text, sermon, and doxology for all the reformers in the state."
"But could not corruption be going on without Mr. Blake knowing it?
Could not Mr. Peck be secretly carrying out some scheme?"
"Blind Charlie? Blind Charlie ain"t dead yet, not by a long sight--and as long as there"s a breath in his carca.s.s, that good-natured old blackguard is likely to be a dangerous customer. But though Charlie"s still the boss of his party, he controls no offices, and has got no real power. He"s as helpless as Satan was after he"d been kicked out of heaven and before he"d landed that big job he holds on the floor below. Nowadays, Charlie just sits in his side office over at the Tippecanoe House playing seven-up from breakfast till bedtime."
"Then you think there"s no corrupt politics in Westville?" she asked in a sinking voice.
"Not an ounce of "em!" said Old Hosie with decision.
This agreed with the conviction that had been growing upon Katherine during the last few days. While she had entertained suspicion of there being corruption, she had several times considered the advisability of putting a detective on the case. But this idea she now abandoned.
After this talk with the old lawyer, Katherine was forced back again upon misunderstanding. She went carefully over the records of her father"s department, on file in the Court House, seeking some item that would cast light upon the puzzle. She went over and over the indictment, seeking some loose end, some overlooked inconsistency, that would yield her at least a clue.
For days she kept doggedly at this work, steeling herself against the disapprobation of the town. But she found nothing. Then, in a flash, an overlooked point recurred to her. The trouble, so went her theory, was all due to a confusion of the bribe with the donation to the hospital. Where was that donation?
Here was a matter that might at last lead to a solution of the difficulty. Again on fire with hope, she interviewed her father. He was certain that a donation had been promised, he had thought the envelope handed him by Mr. Marcy contained the gift--but of the donation itself he knew no more. She interviewed Doctor Sherman; he had heard Mr. Marcy refer to a donation but knew nothing about the matter. She tried to get in communication with Mr. Marcy, only to learn that he was in England studying some new filtering plants recently installed in that country. Undiscouraged, she one day stepped off the train in St. Louis, the home of the Acme Filter, and appeared in the office of the company.
The general manager, a gentleman who ran to portliness in his figure, his jewellery and his courtesy, seemed perfectly acquainted with the case. In exculpation of himself and his company, he said that they were constantly being held up by every variety of official from a county commissioner to a mayor, and they were simply forced to give "presents" in order to do business.
"But my father"s defense," put in Katherine, "was that he thought this "present" was in reality a donation to the hospital. Was anything said to my father about a donation?"
"I believe there was."
"That corroborates my father!" Katherine exclaimed eagerly. "Would you make that statement at the trial--or at least give me an affidavit to that effect?"
"I"ll be glad to give you an affidavit. But I should explain that the "present" and the donation were two distinctly separate affairs."
"Then what became of the donation?" Katherine cried triumphantly.
"It was sent," said the manager.
"Sent?"
"I sent it myself," was the reply.
Katherine left St. Louis more puzzled than before. What had become of the check, if it had really been sent? Home again, she ransacked her father"s desk with his aid, and in a bottom drawer they found a heap of long-neglected mail.
Doctor West at first scratched his head in perplexity. "I remember now," he said. "I never was much of a hand to keep up with my letters, and for the few days before that celebration I was so excited that I just threw everything----"
But Katherine had torn open an envelope and was holding in her hands a fifty dollar check from the Acme Filter Company.