"Then let the scene of my trial be in a less crowded place--the Place Vendome, for instance."
"Name the conditions."
"In an hour from this I engage to fill the Place Vendome with people.
Whoever fails forfeits a dinner to the Club."
The eyes of d.i.c.k and the Doctor sparkled.
"Done!" said the Senator.
"All that you have to do," said b.u.t.tons, "is to go to the top of the Colonne Vendome and wave your hat three times when you want me to begin."
"I"ll do that. But it"s wrong," said the Senator. "It"s taking money from you. You must lose."
"Oh, don"t be alarmed," said b.u.t.tons, cheerfully.
The Dodge Club left for the Place Vendome, and the Senator, separating himself from his companions, began the ascent. b.u.t.tons left his friends at a corner to see the result, and walked quickly down a neighboring street.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Place Vendome.]
d.i.c.k noticed that every one whom he met stopped, stared, and then walked quickly forward, looking up at the column. These people accosted others, who did the same. In a few minutes many hundreds of people were looking up and exchanging glances with one another.
In a short time b.u.t.tons had completed the circuit of the block, and re-entered the Place by another street. He was running at a quick pace, and, at a moderate calculation, about two thousand _gamins de Paris_ ran before, beside, and behind him. Gens d"armes caught the excitement, and rushed frantically about. Soldiers called to one another, and tore across the square gesticulating and shouting.
Carriages stopped; the occupants stared up at the column; hors.e.m.e.n drew up their rearing horses; dogs barked; children screamed; up flew a thousand windows, out of which five thousand heads were thrust.
At the end of twenty minutes, after a very laborious journey, the Senator reached the top of the column. He looked down. A cry of amazement burst from him. The immense Place Vendome was crammed with human beings. Innumerable upturned faces were staring at the startled Senator. All around, the lofty houses sent all their inmates to the open window, through which they looked up. The very house-tops were crowded. Away down all the streets which led to the Place crowds of human beings poured along.
"Well," muttered the Senator, "it"s evident that b.u.t.tons understands these Frenchmen. However, I must perform my part, so here goes."
And the Senator, majestically removing his hat, waved it slowly around his head seven times. At the seventh whirl his fingers slipped, and a great gust of wind caught the hat and blew it far out into the air.
It fell.
A deep groan of horror burst forth from the mult.i.tude, so deep, so long, so terrible that the Senator turned pale.
A hundred thousand heads upturned; two hundred thousand arms waved furiously in the air. The tide of new-comers flowing up the other streets filled the Place to overflowing; and the vast host of people swayed to and fro, agitated by a thousand pa.s.sions. All this was the work of but a short time.
"Come," said the Senator, "this is getting beyond a joke."
There was a sudden movement among the people at the foot of the column. The Senator leaned over to see what it was.
At once a great cry came up, like the thunder of a cataract, warningly, imperiously, terribly. The Senator drew back confounded.
Suddenly he advanced again. He shook his head deprecatingly, and waved his arms as if to disclaim any evil motives which they might impute to him. But they did not comprehend him. Scores of stiff gens d"armes, hundreds of little soldiers, stopped in their rush to the foot of the column to shake their fists and scream at him.
"Now if I only understood their doosid lingo," thought the Senator.
"But"--after a pause--"it wouldn"t be of no account up here. And what an awkward fix," he added, "for the father of a family to stand hatless on the top of a pillory like this! Sho!"
There came a deep rumble from the hollow stairway beneath him, which grew nearer and louder every moment.
"Somebody"s coming," said the Senator. "Wa"al, I"m glad. Misery loves company. Perhaps I can purchase a hat."
In five minutes more the heads of twenty gens d"armes shot up through the opening in the top of the pillar, one after another, and reminded the Senator of the "Jump-up-Johnnies" in children"s toys. Six of them seized him and made him prisoner.
The indignant Senator remonstrated, and informed them that he was an American citizen.
His remark made no impression. They did not understand English.
The Senator"s wrath made his hair fairly bristle. He contented himself, however, with drawing up the programme of an immediate war between France and the Great Republic.
It took an hour for the column to get emptied. It was choked with people rushing up. Seven gentlemen fainted, and three escaped with badly sprained limbs. During this time the Senator remained in the custody of his captors.
At last the column was cleared.
The prisoner was taken down and placed in a cab. He saw the dense crowd and heard the mighty murmurs of the people.
He was driven away for an immense distance. It seemed miles.
At last the black walls of a huge edifice rose before him. The cab drove under a dark archway. The Senator thought of the dungeons of the Inquisition, and other Old World horrors of which he had heard in his boyhood.
So the Senator had to give the dinner. The Club enjoyed it amazingly.
Almost at the moment of his entrance b.u.t.tons had arrived, arm in arm with the American minister, whose representations and explanations procured the Senator"s release.
"I wouldn"t have minded it so much," said the Senator, from whose manly bosom the last trace of vexation had fled, "if it hadn"t been for that darned policeman that collared me first. What a Providence it was that I didn"t knock him down! Who do you think he was?"
"Who?"
"The very man that was going to arrest me the other day when I was trying to find my way to the slaughter-house. That man is my evil genius. I will leave Paris before another day."
"The loss of your hat completed my plans," said b.u.t.tons. "Was that done on purpose? Did you throw it down for the sake of saying "Take my hat?""
"No. It was the wind," said the Senator, innocently. "But how did you manage to raise the crowd? You haven"t told us that yet."
"How? In the simplest way possible. I told every soul I met that a crazy man was going up the Colonne Vendome to throw himself down."
A light burst in upon the Senator"s soul. He raised his new hat from a chair, and placing it before b.u.t.tons, said fervently and with unction:
"Keep it, b.u.t.tons!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Keep It b.u.t.tons!]