Uncle Dan put his hands under his coat-tails and marched out, his beak in the air.
"The trouble is," he confided to old St.u.r.divant in the adjutant-general"s office, "this younger element that"s coming along thinks men like you and I have lost all our ability and influence.
They"re sally-lavering all over us, telling us how they want us to have an easy job. But it"s all a d.a.m.nation insult--that"s what it amounts to."
"All I have to do is lap sticking-paper and gum up the places where these rolls are torn," said old St.u.r.divant. "I"m perfectly contented."
"Then stay were you"re put and swaller the insult," retorted Breed, with disgust. "I thought you had more get-up-and-get. There"s a stuffed rabbit in that museum. He"ll make a good chum for you in your off hour.
Go and sit down with him." He went over to old Ambrose"s desk. Ambrose was numbering dog"s-eared pages with a rubber stamp and would not admit that he had been insulted by the state committee. "There"s n.o.body got the right to ask me to stop being active and influential in this state,"
insisted Breed. "They haven"t taken my pride into account. I ain"t naturally a kicker. I"ve always obeyed orders. If I"ve got to go out alone and show "em that the old guard can"t be insulted, then I"ll do it."
This time he took the trail of Walker Farr once more and followed that energetic young man until he cornered him.
Farr harkened with interest to the story of the sc.r.a.pping of the Honorable Daniel Breed as related by that gentleman himself.
"And the moral of the tale is," added Mr. Breed, "when a gang does you dirt turn around and plaster a few gobs onto the dirt-slingers. That ain"t the rule in religion, but it"s the natural and correct policy in politics. I have been hurt in my tender feelings. If them animals had been alive and savage enough I would have taken "em up to the state committee-room and ste" boyed "em onto the ungrateful cusses who have tried to make my last days unhappy. I know every sore spot in this state. You don"t know "em unless you have got second sight. I can take you to every man who has got a political bruise on him. Good gad! I have been poulticing those sore spots for twenty-five years. You need a man like I am."
"I"ll admit that I do need such a man. I am a stranger in the state. But I"m going to be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Breed. How do I know but you"re a spy who wants to attach himself to me for the benefit of the ring?"
"You don"t know," returned Mr. Breed, serenely. "You have to take chances in politics. I"m taking chances when I join in with you. Just who are you and how do you happen to be mixed up in our politics?"
"I am mixing into politics because the men, women, and children are being poisoned by the Consolidated water. That"s platform enough, isn"t it?"
"Well, I reckon it is, knowing what I know of general conditions. You have got a pretty good head for politics, even if you ain"t sincere on the water question," said Breed, with a politician"s ready suspicion of motives. "You"ve got a come-all-ye hoorah there that will make votes."
"As to my personality, that has nothing to do with the matter. I am only an agent. Will you come with me and allow Mr. Converse to ask you some questions?"
"Sure thing!" agreed the Honorable Daniel, with great heartiness. "In politics the first thing to do before you get real busy is to have a nice heart-to-heart talk with the gent who says "How much?" and laps his forefinger and begins to count. You understand, young man, that I have been in politics a long time. And I ain"t an animal-trainer--I"m a field worker and I can earn my pay."
And inside of a week Walker Farr, who had been previously struggling hard against lack of acquaintance in the state, found that Mr. Breed had spoken the truth. The two made a team which excited the full approval--the wondering admiration--of the Honorable Archer Converse.
Farr"s power to control and interest men achieved astonishing results with Daniel Breed"s exact knowledge of persons and conditions.
But they were rather humble citizens. There was no fanfare about their work. If Colonel Symonds Dodd knew anything at all about the fires they were setting, he made no move to turn on the Consolidated hose.
XXIV
THE STAR CHAMBER IN THE OLD NATIONAL
They did not come furtively, yet they came un.o.btrusively--these men who drifted into the National Hotel in Marion that day.
At one side of the big rotunda of the National stood Walker Farr, his keen gaze noting the men who came dribbling in, singly, by twos and threes. They were not men of Marion city. A newspaper reporter, happening in at the National, noted that fact. He stood for a time and watched the filtering arrivals. There were some who were plainly men of affairs, others were solid men who bore the stamp of the rural sections.
They went to the desk, wrote their names, and were shown up-stairs by bellhops. Most of them, as they crossed the office, nodded greeting to the tall young man who wore a frock coat and a broad-brimmed hat and stood almost motionless at one side of the rotunda.
The National was state Mecca for all kinds of conventions. The reporter studied his date-book. No convention was scheduled for that day. He managed to get a peep at the hotel register. The men who had been signing their names hailed from all portions of the state, but the reporter did not find ident.i.ties which suggested political activities.
It was plainly not a gathering of politicians--none of the old war-horses were in evidence.
The reporter questioned a few of the arrivals, chasing beside them. They all gave the same answer--they had come to Marion on business.
The reply was safe, succinct, and stopped further questions. The reporter did venture to pick out a little man and inquire what kind of business called him to Marion, and the little man informed him with sarcasm that he was a baker from Banbury and had come down to purchase doughnut holes.
The reporter thereupon dodged into the bar to escape the grins of some of the office crew, and his haste was such that he nearly beat the baize doors into the face of Richard Dodd, who was coming out.
"You"re the first real politician I"ve seen in this bunch," affirmed the reporter. "What"s it all about?"
"What"s what about?"
"This convention that"s a.s.sembling here."
"I know nothing about it," stated Mr. Dodd, with dignity. "It"s nothing of a political nature, I can a.s.sure you of that."
The reporter noted that young Mr. Dodd"s eyes were red and that his step wavered, and that he exhaled the peculiar odor which emanates from gentlemen who have been prolonging for some time what is known vulgarly as a "toot." In fact, the reporter remembered then the rumor in newspaper circles that the chief clerk of the state treasury had been attending to stimulants instead of to business for almost two weeks.
"I a.s.sure you that I know all that"s to be known about politics,"
insisted Mr. Dodd. "If there"s a convention here, who"s running it?"
They had returned from the bar into the main office.
"I don"t know--can"t find out. That tall fellow over there seems to know everybody who had been coming in--all the bunch of outsiders. But I never saw him before."
Mr. Dodd closed one eye in order to focus his attention on this unknown across the office.
A deep glow of antipathy and distrust came into the eye which located and identified Walker Farr.
Mr. Dodd cursed without using names, verbs, or information.
"Oh, you know him, do you?"
"No, I don"t know him." Mr. Dodd hung to his vengeful secret doggedly.
He left the reporter and went and sat down in a chair and continued to stare at Farr, who remained oblivious to this inspection.
The reporter went across the office. There seemed to be more or less mystery about this man who had provoked all those curses from the secretive chief clerk of the treasury.
"Can you give me any information about these men who are meeting here to-day?"
"Meeting of the Independent Corn-Growers" a.s.sociation." The reporter"s gaze was frankly skeptical, but Farr met it without a flicker of the eyelids.
"I never heard of any such a.s.sociation."
"You have now, sir."
"Is it open to the newspapers?"
"Closed doors--absolutely private."
"Who"ll give out the statement?"