"But, excuse me; you see, Miss, Mr. Harper is a reg"lar guest of the hotel, and I wouldn"t dare go to extremes. If I was to make him mad----"
"I"ll take all the blame!" she cried. "And afterward he"ll thank you for it!"
The bartender scratched his thin hair.
"Of course, I want to help you, Miss, and since you put it that way, all right. You say I can go the limit?"
"Yes! Yes!"
The bartender retired behind his bar and returned with a pail of water. He removed the young editor"s hat.
"Stand back, Miss; it"s ice cold," he said; and with a swing of his pudgy arms he sent the water about Harper"s head, neck, and upper body.
The young fellow staggered up with a gasping cry. His blinking eyes saw the bartender, with the empty pail. He reached for the tumbler before him.
"d.a.m.n you, Murphy!" he growled. "I"ll pay you----"
But Katherine stepped quickly forward and touched his dripping sleeve.
"Mr. Harper!" she said.
He slowly turned his head. Then the hand with the upraised tumbler sank to the table, and he stared at her.
"Mr. Harper," she said sharply, slowly, trying to drive her words into his dulled brain, "I"ve got to speak to you! At once!"
He continued to blink at her stupidly. At length his lips opened.
"Miss West," he said thickly.
She shook him fiercely.
"Pull yourself together! I"ve got to speak to you!"
At this moment Mr. Murphy, who had gone once more behind his bar, reappeared bearing a gla.s.s. This he held out to Harper.
"Here, Billy, put this down. It"ll help straighten you up."
Harper took the gla.s.s in a trembling hand and swallowed its contents.
"And now, Miss," said the bartender, putting Harper"s dry hat on him, "the thing to do is to get him out in the cold air, and walk him round a bit. I"d do it for you myself," he added gallantly, "but everybody"s down at the Square and there ain"t no one here to relieve me."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Murphy."
"It"s nothing at all, Miss," said he with a grandiloquent gesture of a hairy, bediamonded hand. "Glad to do it."
She slipped her arm through the young editor"s.
"And now, Mr. Harper, we must go."
Billy Harper vaguely understood the situation and there was a trace of awakening shame in his husky voice.
"Are you sure--you want to be seen with me--like this?"
"I must, whether I want to or not," she said briefly; and she led him through the side door out into the frosty night.
The period that succeeded will ever remain in Katherine"s mind as matchless in her life for agonized suspense. She was ever crying out frantically to herself, why did this man she led have to be in such a condition at this the time when he was needed most? While she rapidly walked her drenched and shivering charge through the deserted back streets, the enthusiasm of Court House Square reverberated maddeningly in her ears. She realized how rapidly time was flying--and yet, aflame with desire for action as she was, all she could do was to lead this brilliant, stupefied creature to and fro, to and fro. She wondered if she would be able to bring him to his senses in time to be of service.
To her impatience, which made an hour of every moment, it seemed she never would. But her hope was all on him, and so doggedly she kept him going.
Presently he began to lurch against her less heavily and less frequently; and soon, his head hanging low in humiliation, he started shiveringly to mumble out an abject apology. She cut him short.
"We"ve no time for apologies. There"s work to be done. Is your head clear enough to understand?"
"I think so," he said humbly, albeit somewhat thickly.
"Listen then! And listen hard!"
Briefly and clearly she outlined to him her discoveries and told him of the doc.u.ments she had just secured. She did not realize it, but this recital of hers was, for the purpose of sobering him, better far than a douche of ice-water, better far than walking in the tingling air. She was appealing to, stimulating, the most sensitive organ of the born newspaper man, his sense of news. Before she was through he had come to a pause beneath a sputtering arc light, and was interrupting her with short questions, his eyes ablaze with excitement.
"G.o.d!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed when she had finished, "that would make the greatest newspaper story that ever broke loose in this town!"
She trembled with an excitement equal to his own.
"And I want you to make it into the greatest newspaper story that ever broke loose in this town!"
"But to-morrow the voting----"
"There"s no to-morrow about it! We"ve got to act to-night. You must get out an extra of the _Express_."
"An extra of the _Express_!"
"Yes. And it must be on the streets before that ma.s.s-meeting breaks up."
"Oh, my G.o.d, my G.o.d!" Billy whispered in awe to himself, forgetting how cold he was as his mind took in the plan. Then he started away almost on a run. "We"ll do it! But first, we"ve got to get the press-room gang."
"I"ve seen to that. I think we"ll find them waiting at the office."
"You don"t say!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Billy. "Miss West, to-morrow, when there"s more time, I"m going to apologize to you, and everybody, for----"
"If you get out this extra, you won"t need to apologize to anybody."
"But to-night, if you"ll let me," continued Billy, "I want you to let me say that you"re a wonder!"
Katherine let this praise go by unheeded, and as they hurried toward the Square she gave him details she had omitted in her outline. When they reached the _Express_ office they found Old Hosie, who told them that the foreman and the mechanical staff were in the press-room. A shout from Billy down the stairway brought the foreman running up.
"Do you know what"s doing, Jake?" cried Billy.
"Yes. Mr. Hollingsworth told me."