"You"d resign first?"
"Yes."
"Then I"ll take it down myself."
With his letter-opener he pried the offensive strip loose, tore it across thrice, and scattered the pieces on the floor.
"Mr. Ellis," said he formally, "hereafter no medical advertising will be accepted for or published in the "Clarion." The same rule applies to fraudulent advertising of any kind. I wish you and the other members of the staff to act as censors for the advertising."
"Yes, sir," said McGuire Ellis.
He turned back to his desk, and sprawled his elbows on it. His head lapsed lower and lower until it attained the familiar posture of rest.
But McGuire Ellis was not sleeping. He was thinking.
CHAPTER x.x.xI
THE VOICE OF THE PROPHET
Two hundred and fifty representative citizens, mostly of the business type, with a sprinkling of other occupations not including physicians, sat fanning themselves into a perspiration in the Chamber of Commerce a.s.sembly rooms, and wondering what on earth an Emergency Health Meeting might be. Congressman Brett Harkins, a respectable nonent.i.ty, who was presiding, had refrained from telling them: deliberately, it would appear, as his speech had dealt vaguely with the greatness of Worthington"s material prosperity, now threatened--if one might credit his theory--by a combination of senseless panic and reckless tongues; and had concluded by stating that Mr. William Douglas, one of the leaders of our bar, as all the chairman"s hearers well knew, would explain the situation and formulate a plan for the meeting"s consideration.
Explanation, however, did not prove to be Mr. William Douglas"s forte.
Coached by that practiced diplomat, Certina Charley, he made a speech memorable chiefly for what it did not say. The one bright, definite gleam, amidst rolling columns of oratory, was the proposal that an Emergency Committee of One Hundred be appointed to cope with the situation, that the initial sum of twenty-five thousand dollars be pledged by subscription, and that their distinguished fellow citizen, Dr. L. Andre Surtaine, be permanent chairman of said committee, with power to appoint. Dr. Surtaine had generously offered to subscribe ten thousand dollars to the fund. (Loud and prolonged applause; the word "thousand" preceding the word "dollars" and itself preceded by any numeral from one to one million, inclusive, being invariably provocative of acclaim in a subscription meeting of representative citizens.) Mr. Douglas took pride in nominating that Midas of Medicine, Dr. Surtaine. (More and louder applause.) The Reverend Dr. Wales, of Dr.
Surtaine"s church, sonorously seconded the nomination. So did Hollis Myers, of the Security Power Products Company. So, a trifle grumpily, did Elias M. Pierce. Also Col. Parker, editor of the "Telegram," Aaron Scheffler, of Scheffler and Mintz, and Councilman Carlin. The presiding officer inquired with the bland indifference of the a.s.sured whether there were any further nominations. There were not. But turning in his second-row seat, Festus Willard, who was too important a figure commercially to leave out, though Dr. Surtaine had entertained doubts of his "soundness," demanded of McGuire Ellis, seated just behind him, what it was all about.
"Ask the chairman," suggested Ellis.
"I will," said Willard. He got up and did.
The Honorable Brett Harkins looked uncomfortable. He didn"t really know what it was all about. Moreover, it had been intimated to him that he"d perhaps better not know. He cast an appealing glance at Douglas.
"That is not exactly the question before the meeting," began Douglas hastily.
"It is the question I asked," persisted Willard. "Before we elect Dr.
Surtaine or any one else chairman of a committee with a fund to spend, I want to know what the committee is for."
"To cope with the health situation of the city."
"Very well. Now we"re getting somewhere. Where"s Dr. Merritt? I think we ought to hear from him on that point."
Murmurs of a.s.sent were heard about the room. Dr. Surtaine rose to his feet.
"If I may be pardoned for speaking to a motion of which I am a part," he said in his profound and mellow voice.
"I think I can throw light upon the situation. Quite a number of us have observed with uneasiness the increase of sickness in Worthington.
Sensationalists have gone so far as to whisper that there is an epidemic. I have myself made a rigid investigation. More than this, my son, Mr. Harrington Surtaine, has placed the resources of the "Clarion"
staff at our disposal, and on the strength of both inquiries, I am prepared to a.s.sure this gathering that nothing like an epidemic exists."
"Well, I _am_ d.a.m.ned!" was McGuire Ellis"s astounded and none too low-voiced comment upon this bold perversion of the "Clarion"
enterprise. Stretching upward from his seat he looked about for Hal. The young editor sat in a far corner, his regard somberly intent upon the speaker.
"Alarm there has undoubtedly been, and is," pursued Dr. Surtaine. "To find means to allay it is the purpose of the meeting. We must remove the cause. Both our morbidity and our mortality rate, though now retrograding, have been excessive for several weeks, especially in the Rookeries district. There has been a prevalence of malaria of a severe type, which, following last winter"s epidemic of grip, has proven unusually fatal. Dr. Merritt believes that he can wipe out the disease quietly if a sufficient sum is put at his disposal."
This was not authoritative. Merritt had declined to commit himself, but Dr. Surtaine was making facts of his hopes.
"In this gathering it is hardly necessary for me to refer to the munic.i.p.al importance of Old Home Week and to the damage to its prospects which would be occasioned by any suspicion of epidemic," continued the speaker. "Whatever may be the division of opinion as to methods, we are surely unanimous in wishing to protect the interests of the centennial celebration. And this can best be done through a committee of representative men, backing the const.i.tuted health authorities, without commotion or disturbance. Have I answered your doubts, Mr. Willard?" he concluded, turning a brow of benign inquiry upon that gentleman.
"Not wholly," said Festus Willard. "I"ve heard it stated on medical authority that there is some sort of plague in the Rookeries."
A murmur of inquiry rose. "Plague? What kind of plague?"--"Who says so?"--"Does he mean bubonic?"--"No doctor that knows his business--"--"They say doctors are shut out of the Rookeries."--"Order!
Order!"
Through the confusion cleaved the edged voice of E.M. Pierce, directed to the chairman:
"Shut that off."
A score took the cue. "Question! Question!" they cried.
"Do I get an answer to my question?" persisted Willard.
"What is your question?" asked the hara.s.sed chairman.
"Is there a pestilence in the Rookeries? If so, what is its nature?"
"There is not," stated Dr. Surtaine from his seat. "Who ever says there is, is an enemy to our fair and healthy city."
This n.o.ble sentiment, delivered with all the impressiveness of which the old charlatan was master, roused a burst of applause. To its rhythm there stalked down the side aisle and out upon the rostrum the gaunt figure of the Reverend Norman Hale.
"Mr. Chairman," he said.
"How did that fellow get here?" Dr. Surtaine asked of Douglas.
"We invited all the ministers," was the low response. "I understood he was seriously ill."
"He is a trouble-maker. Tell Harkins not to let him talk."
Douglas spoke a word in the chairman"s ear.
"There"s a motion before the house--I mean the meeting," began Congressman Harkins, when the voice behind him cut in again, hollow and resonant:
"Mr. Chairman."
"Do you wish to speak to the question?" asked the chairman uncertainly.
"I do."