A chorus of voices answered him, so loud and vigorous that he had trouble sorting out one piece of bad news from the next. The British army in Montana Territory was still moving south. British gunboats on the Great Lakes were bombarding U.S. lakeside cities again, with apparent impunity. Louisville remained a b.l.o.o.d.y stalemate.
"President Blaine didn"t think he had reason enough to give over the war before," Clemens observed. "Our enemies seem to be giving him reason now, don"t they?"
"And Pocahontas, Arkansas, has fallen back into Rebel hands," Clay Herndon added.
"Good G.o.d!" Sam staggered, as if taking a mortal wound. "That proves the struggle truly hopeless. How, save by the grace of a thick skull, can Blaine keep from yielding to common sense?"
Edgar Leary delivered the topper: "The wires say British ironclads have appeared off Boston and New York, and they"re bombarding the harbors and the towns."
"Good G.o.d," Clemens said, this time in earnest. "They are taking the switch to us. You"d think that, if we were going to get into a war with the whole world, we might have made some sort of an effort to be ready for it ahead of time. But the Democrats reckoned saying "Yes, Ma.s.sa" to the Rebs once a day and twice on Sundays would get us by without fighting, so they didn"t fret much about the Army and Navy. And Blaine didn"t fret about "em, either; he just up and used "em, ready or not. And now we know which."
From the back of the office, somebody shouted, "Holy Jesus! Telegraph says the French Navy is sh.e.l.ling Los Angeles harbor."
"That does it!" Sam cried. "That absolutely does it! The Confederates wrestle us to the ground, England jumps on us as soon as we"re down, and now France bites us in the ankle. Can"t you see her, yapping and panting? Pretty soon, she"ll p.i.s.s on our leg, you mark my word."
Off in the distance, thunder rolled.
Clay Herndon frowned. "It was clear when I got here half an hour ago. Don"t usually get thunderstorms this time of year, anyhow. h.e.l.l, we don"t usually get any rain at all this time of year."
"Fastest thunderstorm I ever heard of," Clemens said. "It was clear when I walked in five minutes ago."
"Look out the window," Leary said. "It"s still clear."
Sam couldn"t see the window. He opened the door. Bright daylight streamed in. Another rumbling roar sounded, though, this one not so far away. "That isn"t thunder!" he exclaimed. "It"s cannon fire."
"It can"t be," Clay Herndon said. "It"s not coming from the direction of the forts, and we"d have heard if Colonel Sherman were moving any guns. Most of those big ones don"t move, anyhow."
"I didn"t say they were our guns, Clay," Clemens answered quietly. "I think somebody"s navy has just brought the war to San Francisco."
"That"s cra-" Herndon began. Then he shook his head. It would have been crazy yesterday. It wasn"t crazy today, not with the Royal Navy sh.e.l.ling Boston and New York harbors, not with the French-whose ships, Sam judged, had to be sallying from some port on the west coast of their puppet Mexican empire-bombarding Los Angeles.
And, as if to confirm Clemens" words, more thunderous reports rolled out of the west. But they were not thunder. A few seconds later came another blast, close enough to rattle the front window of the Morning Call Morning Call offices, through which Edgar Leary was still staring as if expecting rain. A rending crash followed. "That"s a building falling down," Herndon whispered. offices, through which Edgar Leary was still staring as if expecting rain. A rending crash followed. "That"s a building falling down," Herndon whispered.
"No." Clemens shook his head. "That"s a building blowing up."
Now, at last, from the northwest came the thunderous reports that had grown familiar through the summer: the cannon in San Francisco"s fortifications opened up, defending the harbor against the foe. "They"ll never make it through the Golden Gate!" Leary exclaimed.
"I wonder if they even care to try." Sam was thinking out loud, and not liking any of his own thoughts. "By the sound of their guns, they"re standing off the coast-maybe out past the Cliff House-and shooting across the peninsula, either toward the wharves or just toward us. I wonder if they know which themselves, or care."
A sh.e.l.l landed only a couple of blocks away. The floor jerked under Sam"s feet from the explosion, as if at a small, sharp earthquake. A moment later, he heard the rumble of collapsing masonry. He"d heard that during earthquakes, too, but not during small ones. Blast and rumble were so loud, he marveled at how faint and distant the following screams seemed.
But, where the roar of the cannons had not, those screams reminded him he was a newspaperman. "Jesus Christ, boys!" he burst out. "We"re sitting in the middle of the biggest story that"s happened in this town since 1849. We"re not going to be able to cover it standing around here or hiding under our desks. Leary! Get over to Fort Point. See what the devil the garrison"s doing to drive the enemy away. See if they"re doing anything to drive the enemy away. See if they know who the devil the enemy is. That"d be a good bit of news to put in a story, don"t you think?"
"Right, boss!" Edgar Leary pushed past him and out the door.
"Clay!" Sam snapped. "You go to the Cliff House, fast as you can. Whatever you can see of the enemy fleet, note it down."
"I"ll do it," Herndon said. Then he hesitated. "What if they"ve already blown the Cliff House to h.e.l.l and gone?"
Clemens" exasperated exhalation puffed out his mustache. "In that case, you chowderhead, don"t go inside." Herndon nodded quite seriously, as if that hadn"t occurred to him. Maybe it hadn"t. More explosions were rocking the city now. How could you blame anybody for having a hard time thinking straight?
Clemens sent someone to the harbor, to see if enemy sh.e.l.ls were falling there as well as on San Francisco itself, and also to see what, if anything, the Pacific Squadron was doing about the enemy. He scattered reporters through the city. Whatever happened, he-and the Morning Call Morning Call-would know about it.
One of the last men out the door asked, "Are you going to stay here and put everything together, boss?"
"That"s what I have in mind, yes," Sam answered. "Every one of you will know more about some of this business than I do, but I"ll end up knowing more about all of this business than any of you."
"Unless a sh.e.l.l comes down on your head," the reporter said with a nervous chuckle.
"Some people who work for this paper, that would hurt the sh.e.l.l more than the head in question." Clemens fixed the reporter with a glare. "Shall I name names?"
"Oh, no, boss," the fellow said hastily, and departed. Not five seconds after he was out the door, another sh.e.l.l made the building shake. The front window broke in a tinkling shower of gla.s.s. Somewhere not top far away, a fire-alarm bell was clanging. Sam grimaced at that. How many gas lines was the bombardment breaking? How many fires had started? How bad would they get? How was the fire department supposed to put them out, with ironclads sh.e.l.ling the men as they worked?
"Those are all good questions," Clemens muttered. "I wonder if any good answers will stick to them."
He stationed himself at his desk. Every time a sh.e.l.l smashed down west of the newspaper office, he scowled and chewed on his cigar. What were Alexandra and Orion and Ophelia doing? This was a nasty way to make war, throwing sh.e.l.ls around in the hope of smashing up whatever they hit and not worrying much about what that was.
Most of an hour went by. The local telegraph clicker started to chatter. No one was minding it; Clemens had sent everybody out to cover the story. He got up to see what the message was. It was from Clay Herndon: ROYAL NAVY Sh.e.l.lING CITY. CLIFF HOUSE WRECKED AND BURNING. AT NEAREST TELEGRAPH OFFICE TO OCEAN. DAMAGE SEVERE ALREADY. OUR GUNS OF LITTLE EFFECT. ROYAL NAVY Sh.e.l.lING CITY. CLIFF HOUSE WRECKED AND BURNING. AT NEAREST TELEGRAPH OFFICE TO OCEAN. DAMAGE SEVERE ALREADY. OUR GUNS OF LITTLE EFFECT.
That gave Sam something to write. He wrote it and gave it to the typesetters. Other reports began coming in, some by wire, some by messengers the reporters had paid, some by messengers who loudly demanded to be paid. Sam suspected some of those had already been paid once, but he sh.e.l.led out. They hadn"t had to come here, after all.
A picture began to emerge. The enemy ships did seem to be trying to reach the harbor with their guns, or at least with some of them. Most of the sh.e.l.ls were falling short, though. "Thanks," Sam muttered sourly as the Morning Call Morning Call building rattled again. "I never would have noticed that." building rattled again. "I never would have noticed that."
The Pacific Squadron was moving out to engage the foe. He suspected the handful of antiquated gunboats would be sorry in short order, but making the effort was their job. He wished Edgar Leary would send him something, but the cub remained silent. Maybe he"d been hit on the way to Fort Point. Maybe the telegraph lines were down. And maybe Colonel Sherman wasn"t inclined to let any news out of the fort and into the city. Considering how little the fort"s guns were doing to drive away the British ironclads, the last explanation struck Clemens as most likely.
Men with rifles started running down Market. Other men with rifles started running up Market. "Good to see the Volunteers have everything well in hand," Sam muttered. "Chickens act this way after the hatchet comes down, but chickens aren"t in the habit of carrying Springfields." Somebody fired one of those rifles. How many of our own shall we kill? How many of our own shall we kill? Clemens scribbled. Clemens scribbled. How many of them shall we blame on the British? How many of them shall we blame on the British?
The telegraph clicker started up again. He hurried over to it. The message was to the point: MARINES LANDING OCEAN BEACH MARINES LANDING OCEAN BEACH. HERNDON HERNDON.
Sam was still carrying his notebook and pen. He looked down at the two sentences he"d just written. They were still true. They were, if anything, truer than ever. With three quick, firm strokes, he scratched them out anyhow. "Who"s wearing a hogleg?" he shouted, as loud as he could. "The G.o.dd.a.m.ned Englishmen are landing troops!"
"We"ll nail the sons of b.i.t.c.hes!" a typesetter yelled. He and two of the men who served the presses dashed out the front door, pistols in their hands. Clemens wondered if the British Marines knew what they were getting into. Apart from the Volunteer companies, a lot of men in San Francisco carried guns for self-protection-not least, for protection from other men carrying guns.
He wondered whether the Regular Army garrison up at Fort Point and the Presidio knew the ironclads out in the Pacific had landed Marines. Anyone with a lick of sense would have posted lookouts-with luck, lookouts with telegraph keys-all along the ocean front opposite the built-up part of San Francisco. "Which means the Army likely hasn"t done it," he said. Then he shrugged.
"If they don"t know about "em, they"ll find out pretty d.a.m.n quick."
He went back to his desk and started writing up some of the reports he was getting. As soon as he finished one, he carried it back to the typesetters, who set about turning it into something someone besides him and them and perhaps Alexandra could read.
By the time he"d finished a couple, a great rattle of small-arms fire had broken out to the west. It rapidly got louder and closer. People might be shooting at the British Marines, but they were shooting back, too, and evidently to better effect.
Smoke started floating in through what had been the front window. Clemens coughed a couple of times, then called, "Boys, if you want to go out in the street, I won"t say a word. This is a fine paper, but it"s not worth burning up for."
Most of the printers and typesetters did leave the building. As long as some of them stuck, Sam did, too, figuring the men out there would warn him before advancing flames got too close. He covered page after page of paper, wondering all the while if what he wrote would meet a hotter critic than he"d ever been.
Clay Herndon burst into the offices without his jacket, with his cravat all askew, and with blood running down the side of his face. "My G.o.d, Sam!" he cried hoa.r.s.ely. "They"re coming this way! n.o.body can stop them. They"re coming!"
Clemens pulled a bottle of whiskey out of a desk drawer. "Here," he said. "Drink some of this." Herndon did, and then wheezed and choked. Sam said, "Wipe your face and tell me what happened to you."
Herndon ran a sleeve across his cheek and seemed astonished when it came away red. "Must have been when a bullet took out a window and sprayed me with gla.s.s," he said. "It"s nothing. Listen, those Royal Marines make the Regulars look sick. n.o.body can shift "em, and they"re not far behind me, either."
"What in tarnation are the limeys up to?" Clemens demanded. "I thought they"d do some shooting and burning for show, but if they"re on your heels"-and the ever-swelling racket of gunfire made that obviously true-"they must be after something bigger. But what?"
"d.a.m.ned if I know," the reporter said. "Whatever it is, who"s going to stop "em?"
"City Hall?" Sam mused. He shook his head. "No, too much to hope for-and if they shoot Mayor Sutro, the city gets stronger." And then, almost with the force of divine relation, he knew, or thought he did: "My G.o.d! The U.S. Mint!"
"I don"t know." Herndon took another slug of whiskey. "You can"t imagine what it"s like out there. All fire and smoke and chaos and people shooting and people running and people screaming and horses screaming and the only ones who have any notion of what they"re doing or where they"re going are the Marines."
"You sound like a man talking about the devils in h.e.l.l," Clemens said.
"You aren"t far wrong," Herndon said. "Listen, if they are after the Mint, it"s not far from here-down on Mission, by Fifth." He swayed where he stood. Shock? Whiskey? Some of both? Probably the last, Sam guessed. The reporter gathered himself. "They"ll be here soon. That"s not good."
"Have to get the story," Sam said, and pushed outside past Herndon. People were still dashing every which way, some with weapons, some without. And then, almost without warning, they weren"t running every which way. They were all running east, with rifle fire lashing them on. Every so often, someone with a rifle or pistol would pause to send back a shot or two. After that, he"d run some more.
Except one of them didn"t run any more. Instead, he fell, clutching his chest. A moment later, a skinny little man in an unfamiliar uniform not far from Confederate b.u.t.ternut dashed up and bayoneted him to make sure he didn"t get up again. Then he yanked the long, b.l.o.o.d.y bayonet free and aimed his rifle at Sam Clemens.
Time stretched endlessly. As if in a dream, Sam raised his hands to show he was unarmed. The Royal Marine"s face was sweaty and smoke-stained. His scowl showed very bad teeth. He couldn"t have stood more than fifty feet from Sam: point-blank range. After a hundred years in which Sam"s heart beat once, the Englishman turned the rifle aside and ran on.
All the starch went out of Clemens" knees. Even though the Marine had not shot him, he sagged to the pavement. Now, instead of once in a hundred years, his heart thudded a thousand times a second. More and more Royal Marines dashed past him. None of them gave him a second glance; no one could have imagined him a danger at that moment.
More gunfire rang out, not far to the east: the Mint, sure enough. He remained too dazed to feel proud of being right. Some of the British fighting men must have brought dynamite, for loud explosions smote the ear. "Move against them!" shouted a fellow in a captain"s uniform: surely a volunteer. No one moved against them, no matter how he bellowed and carried on.
And then, quite suddenly, or so it seemed to Sam, the Royal Marines were running west where they had been running east. He went back into the Morning Call Morning Call offices. "You know what this is?" he said to Clay Herndon. "It"s the biggest G.o.dd.a.m.n bank holdup in the history of the world." offices. "You know what this is?" he said to Clay Herndon. "It"s the biggest G.o.dd.a.m.n bank holdup in the history of the world."
"How much silver and gold do you think however many British Marines there are could carry away?" Herndon asked in an awed voice.
"Don"t know the answer to that one, but I"ll tell you this: people are going to fight over the bodies of any who got killed the way lions fought over the Christians in the Colosseum," Sam said.
As the sounds of gunfire had once advanced through San Francisco, so now they retreated toward the Pacific. Half an hour after the Royal Marines departed from whatever was left of the U.S. Mint (by the smoke billowing up from it, not much), two natty companies of Regular Army infantry marched past the Morning Call Morning Call offices in neat formation, sun gleaming from their fixed bayonets. Sam didn"t know whether to laugh or cry. He took that bottle out of his desk and got drunk instead. offices in neat formation, sun gleaming from their fixed bayonets. Sam didn"t know whether to laugh or cry. He took that bottle out of his desk and got drunk instead.
Brigadier General Orlando Willc.o.x beamed at Frederick Dougla.s.s. "How good to have you restored to my table here once more," the commander of the Army of the Ohio said, raising his coffee cup in salute as if it were a goblet of wine. "A pleasure to see you returned to freedom, and a pleasure to enjoy your company again. Your very good health." He drank the unspirituous toast.
So did all the officers at his table, even Captain Richardson. "Thank you very much, General," Dougla.s.s said. "Believe me, I feel myself delivered, as were the Israelites from Pharaoh"s bondage in the land of Egypt."
"You are a pious man, Mr. Dougla.s.s," Colonel Alfred von Schlieffen said. "This is in my judgment good. It will take you through hard times in your life more surely than will anything else."
Dougla.s.s eyed the German military attache. What did he know of hard times? In his life, Prussia had gone from triumph to triumph, and now headed a German Empire that was surely the strongest power on the European continent. He had not seen his nation split in two, nor ninety percent of his own people, his own kind, trapped in bondage-like the Israelites indeed, Dougla.s.s thought.
But then he recalled having heard that Schlieffen had lost his wife in childbed. That was an anguish Dougla.s.s had never had to bear. He nodded judiciously. Schlieffen could know whereof he spoke.
"They brought you before Stonewall himself, didn"t they?" someone asked. "What was that like?"
What had had that been like? Stonewall was a name with which mothers in the United States, and especially Negro mothers in the United States, had been frightening naughty children for a generation. "When the Rebel soldiers took me into his tent, I told him I thought I had come before the Antichrist." that been like? Stonewall was a name with which mothers in the United States, and especially Negro mothers in the United States, had been frightening naughty children for a generation. "When the Rebel soldiers took me into his tent, I told him I thought I had come before the Antichrist."
"As well you might," General Willc.o.x said; and then, "Oh, thank you, Grady." The cook set on a table a large tray piled high with squab.
The succulently roasted birds went from tray to plates in next to nothing flat. Dougla.s.s snagged a couple for himself. Baked potatoes followed shortly. He went on, "The very strange thing was that Jackson"s artillery commander-"
"General Alexander," Oliver Richardson put in.
"General Alexander, yes," Dougla.s.s agreed. "Shortly before my arrival there, he he had likened had likened me me to the Antichrist." to the Antichrist."
Richardson nodded, as if he not only believed Alexander would say such a thing but agreed with it himself. Orlando Willc.o.x asked, "And do you and the Confederate generals still hold this view of each other?"
Cutting up a potato and grinding pepper over it, Dougla.s.s paused before answering. Then, slowly, reluctantly, he said, "I, at any rate, do not. General Jackson is a man convinced of his rightness and of his righteousness, but not the horrific figure of evil I had made of him in my mind."
Captain Richardson looked mischievous. "You"ll notice, friends, Dougla.s.s says nothing of whether the Rebs changed their minds about him." He spoke lightly, so the words would be taken for a joke, but Dougla.s.s did not think he was joking. By the snide laughs that rose around the table, neither did a good many members of Willc.o.x"s staff.
"In fact, I believe they did," Dougla.s.s answered. "We shall never love one another. We may now know a certain respect previously lacking." He laughed a laugh of his own. "I cannot deny that General Jackson treated me far more respectfully than the Rebel soldiers who first took hold of me." He chuckled again. That rib didn"t seem to be broken after all. He didn"t know why not.
Down at the far end of the table, someone said, "They didn"t worry about the Antichrist, I"ll bet. They likely thought they"d nabbed Old Scratch himself." That got another laugh, this time one in which Dougla.s.s felt he could join. That major down there wasn"t far wrong.
Colonel Schlieffen changed the subject, saying, "These"-he groped for the English word-"these doves are very good eating. And we have them often, so they must common be. Very good." He sucked the meat off a leg bone.
"Not doves, Colonel." Oliver Richardson enjoyed showing off how much he knew, though this was something any American schoolboy could have told the German military attache. "They"re pa.s.senger pigeons, and yes, they are very common in this part of the country."
"Not so common as they used to be," General Willc.o.x said. "When I was a lad in Michigan, the flocks would darken the sky, as the Persians" arrows are said to have done at Thermopylae against the Greeks. Swarms of that size are no longer seen: fewer forests here in the Midwest where the birds can rear their young than in the old days, I suppose. But, as Captain Richardson says, they do remain common."
"And, as Colonel Schlieffen says, they do remain very good eating." Dougla.s.s had reduced the two he"d taken to a pile of bones. He hooked another bird off the tray and devoured it, too.
Schlieffen said, "I am glad, Mr. Dougla.s.s, you here again to see, and to know that you are safe after being captured. I will not much longer with the Army of the Ohio stay, I think. I have learned much here, and am sorry to have to go, but I think it is for the best."
"I"ll miss you, Colonel," Dougla.s.s said, and meant it. Like most Europeans he"d met, Schlieffen was far more prepared to accept him simply as a man, and not as a black man, than the common run of Americans. "But, if you"re still learning things here, why go?"
"I believe," Schlieffen replied after a perceptible pause for thought, "that what new things I may learn by staying will be small next to the knowledge I have already gained."
Dougla.s.s needed a moment to figure out why the German had taken such pains with his answer. Then he saw: Schlieffen was saying he didn"t expect the Army of the Ohio to accomplish much more than it had already done. He didn"t expect U.S. soldiers to break through the Confederate entrenchments ringing them and to rampage across Kentucky. Had he thought they could manage something like that, he might have stayed to watch them do it.
And, in saying the Army of the Ohio was unlikely to accomplish anything more, he was also saying that army had failed. It still did not hold all of Louisville; its flanking maneuver had been costly but had not dislodged the Rebels. Even if it did eventually dislodge the Rebels from Louisville, it surely could not launch any triumphal progress through Kentucky thereafter. Since triumph was what Blaine and Willc.o.x had purposed, anything less meant defeat.
No wonder Schlieffen was so careful not to offend. His departure pa.s.sed judgment on the campaign and on those who ran it.
Richardson said, "Whether he reckons you"re the Antichrist or not, Mr. Dougla.s.s"-he was smooth when he wanted to be, smooth enough to use a t.i.tle in public, no matter how hypocritically-"I"m surprised old Stonewall up and let you go instead of keeping you to trade for a Reb or something."
Dougla.s.s shrugged. "Had the decision been his, I do not know what he would have done with me-or to me. Had the decision been his, I gather he did not know what he would have done. He referred it to President Longstreet, however, who ordered my release. Having received the order, Jackson not only obeyed but treated me quite handsomely."
Better than you deserved, Richardson"s face said.
Orlando Willc.o.x sighed. "Longstreet was more astute than I had thought he would be. By releasing you so promptly and with such good treatment, he enabled the Confederate States to escape the odium that would have fallen on them had they sought to punish you for your views and actions over the years."
"Yes," Dougla.s.s said, and let it go at that. Martyrdom was easier to contemplate in the abstract than to embrace in the flesh.
From across the Ohio, artillery rumbled. "Confederate guns," Captain Richardson said, and grimaced. "We"ve done everything we could, but we never have been able to beat them down."
"The long range of modern guns makes this hard," Schlieffen said. "So we learned when we fought the French. When the guns you are shooting at are behind a hill or otherwise hidden out of sight, finding accurately the range is not easy."
"True, true," General Willc.o.x said sadly. "During the War of Secession, you could see what you were shooting at, and what you could see, you could hit. Only twenty years ago, but how much has changed since."