"You heard, sir," he went on eagerly, "that your old General, Joe Wheeler, was there and in a moment of excitement forgot himself and shouted to his aid:
""There go the d.a.m.ned Yankees!--charge and give "em h.e.l.l!""
A dreamy look came into the father"s eyes as he interrupted:
"I shouldn"t be surprised if Wheeler said it--anyhow, it"s too good a joke to doubt"--he paused and the smile on his serious face slowly faded.
"Shut the door, Tom," he said with a gesture toward the reporters" room.
The boy rose, closed the door, and sat down near his father"s chair:
"Well, Dad, why so serious? Am I to be fired without a chance? or is it just a cut in my wages? Don"t prolong the agony!"
"I am going to put you in my chair in this office, my son," the father said in a slow drawl. The boy flushed scarlet and then turned pale.
"You don"t mean it--now?" he gasped.
"To-morrow."
"You think I can make good?" The question came through trembling lips and he was looking at his father through a pair of dark blue eyes blurred by tears of excitement.
"You"ll do better than I did at your age. You"re better equipped."
"You think so?" Tom asked in quick boyish eagerness.
"I know it."
The boy sprang to his feet and grasped his father"s hand:
"Your faith in me is glorious--it makes me feel like I can do anything----"
"You can--if you try."
"Well, if I can, it"s because I"ve got good blood in me. I owe it all to you. You"re the biggest man I ever met, Dad. I"ve wanted to say this to you for a long time, but I never somehow got up my courage to tell you what I thought of you."
The father slipped his arm tenderly about the boy and looked out the window at the bright Southern sky for a moment before he slowly answered:
"I"d rather hear that from you, Tom, than the shouts of the rest of the world."
"I"m going to do my level best to prove myself worthy of the big faith you"ve shown in me--but why have you done it? What does it mean?"
"Simply this, my boy, that the time has come in the history of the South for a leader to strike the first blow in the battle for racial purity by establishing a clean American citizenship. I am going to disfranchise the Negro in this state as the first step toward the ultimate complete separation of the races."
The boy"s eyes flashed:
"It"s a big undertaking, sir."
"Yes."
"Is it possible?"
"Many say not. That"s why I"m going to do it. The real work must come after this first step. Just now the campaign which I"m going to inaugurate to-morrow in a speech at the ma.s.s meeting celebrating our victory at Santiago, is the thing in hand. This campaign will take me away from home for several months. I must have a man here whom I can trust implicitly."
"I"ll do my best, sir," the boy broke in.
"In case anything happens to me before it ends----"
Tom bent close:
"What do you mean?"
"You never can tell what may happen in such a revolution----"
"It will be a revolution?"
"Yes. That"s what my enemies as yet do not understand. They will not be prepared for the weapons I shall use. And I"ll win. I may lose my life, but I"ll start a fire that can"t be put out until it has swept the state--the South"--he paused--"and then the Nation!"
CHAPTER IV
THE MAN OF THE HOUR
The editor prepared to launch his campaign with the utmost care. He invited the Executive Committee of his party to meet in his office. The leaders were excited. They knew Norton too well to doubt that he had something big to suggest. Some of them came from distant sections of the state, three hundred miles away, to hear his plans.
He faced the distinguished group of leaders calmly, but every man present felt the deep undercurrent of excitement beneath his words.
"With your cooperation, gentlemen," he began, "we are going to sweep the state this time by an overwhelming majority----"
"That"s the way to talk!" the Chairman shouted.
"Four years ago," he went on, "we were defeated for the first time since the overthrow of the negro government under the Reconstruction regime. This defeat was brought about by a division of the whites under the Socialistic program of the Farmers" Alliance. Gradually the black man has forced himself into power under the new regime. Our farmers only wished his votes to accomplish their plans and have no use for him as an officeholder. The rank and file of the white wing, therefore, of the allied party in power, are ripe for revolt if the Negro is made an issue."
The Committee cheered.
"I propose to make the Negro the only issue of this campaign. There will be no half-way measures, no puling hesitation, no weakness, and it will be a fight to the death in the open. The day for secret organizations has gone in Southern history. There is no Black League to justify a reorganization of the Klan. But the new Black League has a far more powerful organization.
Its mask is now philanthropy, not patriotism. Its weapon is the lure of gold, not the flash of Federal bayonets. They will fight to divide the white race on this vital issue.
"Here is our danger. It is real. It is serious. But we must meet it. There is but one way, and that is to conduct a campaign of such enthusiasm, of such daring and revolutionary violence if need be, that the little henchmen and sycophants of the Dispensers of the National Poor Funds will be awed into silence.
"The leadership of such a campaign will be a dangerous one. I offer you my services without conditions. I ask nothing for myself. I will accept no honors. I offer you my time, my money, my paper, my life if need be!"
The leaders rose as one man, grasped Norton"s hand, and placed him in command.
No inkling of even the outlines of his radical program was allowed to leak out until the hour of the meeting of the party convention. The delegates were waiting anxiously for the voice of a leader who would sound the note of victory.
And when the platform was read to the convention declaring in simple, bold words that the time had come for the South to undo the crime of the Fifteenth Amendment, disfranchise the Negro and restore to the Nation the basis of white civilization, a sudden cheer like a peal of thunder swept the crowd, followed by the roar of a storm. It died away at last in waves of excited comment, rose again and swelled and rose higher and higher until the old wooden building trembled.