The old man"s eyes grew brighter--they were exceedingly sharp for one so old, and he said quite gently now:
"M. Marchand said it first, and you all say it afterwards--ah, bah! But listen to me; I know Max Ingolby that you think is such a villain; I know him well. I knew him when he was a little boy and--"
"You was his nurse, I suppose!" cried the Englishman"s voice amid a roar of laughter.
"Taught him his A-B-C-was his dear, kind teacher, eh?" hilariously cried another.
The old man appeared not to hear. "I have known him all the years since.
He has only been in the West a few years, but he has lived in the world exactly thirty-three years. He never willingly did anybody harm--never.
Since he came West, since he came to the Sagalac, he"s brought work to Lebanon and to Manitou. There are hundreds more workmen in both the towns than there were when he came. It was he made others come with much money and build the factories and the mills. Work means money, money means bread, bread means life--so."
The big river-driver, seeing the effect of the old man"s words upon the crowd, turned to them with an angry gesture and a sneer.
"I s"pose Ingolby has paid this old skeesicks for talking this swash.
We know all right what Ingolby is, and what he"s done. He"s made war between the two towns--there"s h.e.l.l to pay now on both sides of the Sagalac. He took away the railway offices from here, and threw men out of work. He"s done harm to Manitou--he"s against Manitou every time."
Murmurs of approval ran through the crowd, though some were silent, looking curiously at the forceful and confident old man. Even his bent shoulders seemed to suggest driving power rather than the weight of years. He suddenly stretched out a hand in command as it were.
"Comrades, comrades," he said, "every man makes mistakes. Even if it was a mistake for Ingolby to take away the offices from Manitou, he"s done a big thing for both cities by combining the three railways."
"Monopoly," growled a voice from the crowd. "Not monopoly," the old man replied with a ring to his voice, which made it younger, fresher. "Not monopoly, but better management of the railways, with more wages, more money to spend on things to eat and drink and wear, more dollars in the pocket of everybody that works in Manitou and Lebanon. Ingolby works, he doesn"t loaf."
"Oh, gosh all h.e.l.l, he"s a dynamo," shouted a voice from the crowd.
"He"s a dynamo running the whole show-eh!"
The old man seemed to grow shorter, but as he thrust his shoulders forward, it was like a machine gathering energy and power.
"I"ll tell you, friends, what Ingolby is trying to do," he said in a low voice vibrating with that force which belongs neither to age nor youth, but is the permanent activity uniting all ages of a man. "Of course, Ingolby is ambitious and he wants power. He tries to do the big things in the world because there is the big thing to do--for sure. Without such men the big things are never done, and other men have less work to do, and less money and poorer homes. They discover and construct and design and invent and organize and give opportunities. I am a working man, but I know what Ingolby thinks. I know what men think who try to do the big things. I have tried to do them."
The crowd were absolutely still now, but the big river-driver shook himself free of the eloquence, which somehow swayed them all, and said:
"You--you look as if you"d tried to do big things, you do, old skeesicks. I bet you never earned a hundred dollars in your life." He turned to the crowd with fierce gestures. "Let"s go to Lebanon and make the place sing," he roared. "Let"s get Ingolby out to talk for himself, if he wants to talk. We know what we want to do, and we"re not going to be bossed. He"s for Lebanon and we"re for Manitou. Lebanon means to boss us, Lebanon wants to sit on us because we"re Catholics, because we"re French, because we"re honest."
Again a wave of revolution swept through the crowd. The big river-driver represented their natural instincts, their native fanaticism, their prejudices. But the old man spoke once more.
"Ingolby wants Lebanon and Manitou to come together, not to fall apart,"
he declared. "He wants peace. If he gets rich here he won"t get rich alone. He"s working for both towns. If he brings money from outside, that"s good for both towns. If he--"
"Shut your mouth, let Ingolby speak for himself," snarled the big river-driver. "Take his dollars out of your pocket and put them on the bar, the dollars Ingolby gives you to say all this. Put them dollars of Ingolby"s up for drinks, or we"ll give you a jar that"ll shake you, old wart-hog."
At that instant a figure forced itself through the crowd, and broke into the packed circle which was drawing closer upon the old man.
It was Jethro Fawe. He flung a hand out towards the old man.
"You want Ingolby--well, that"s Ingolby," he shouted.
Like lightning the old man straightened himself, s.n.a.t.c.hed the wig and beard away from his head and face, and with quiet fearlessness said:
"Yes, I am Ingolby."
For an instant there was absolute silence, in which Ingolby weighed his chances. He was among enemies. He had meant only to move among the crowd to discover their att.i.tude, to find things out for himself. He had succeeded, and his belief that Manitou could be swayed in the right direction if properly handled, was correct. Beneath the fanaticism and the racial spirit was human nature; and until Jethro Fawe had appeared, he had hoped to prevent violence and the collision at to-morrow"s funeral.
Now the situation was all changed. It was hard to tell what sharp turn things might take. He was about to speak, but suddenly from the crowd there was spat out at him the words, "Spy! Sneak! Spy!"
Instantly the wave of feeling ran against him. He smiled frankly, however, with that droll twist of his mouth which had won so many, and the raillery of his eyes was more friendly than any appeal.
"Spy, if you like, my friends," he said firmly and clearly. "Moses sent spies down into the Land of Promise, and they brought back big bunches of grapes. Well, I"ve come down into a land of promise. I wanted to know just how you all feel without being told it by some one else. I knew if I came here as Max Ingolby I shouldn"t hear the whole truth; I wouldn"t see exactly how you see, so I came as one of you, and you must admit, my French is as good as yours almost."
He laughed and nodded at them.
"There wasn"t one of you that knew I wasn"t a Frenchman. That"s in my favour. If I know the French language as I do, and can talk to you in French as I"ve done, do you think I don"t understand the French people, and what you want and how you feel? I"m one of the few men in the West that can talk your language. I learned it when I was a boy, so that I might know my French fellow-countrymen under the same flag, with the same King and the same national hope. As for your religion, G.o.d knows, I wish I was as good a Protestant as lots of you are good Catholics. And I tell you this, I"d be glad to have a minister that I could follow and respect and love as I respect and love Monseigneur Lourde of Manitou. I want to bring these two towns together, to make them a sign of what this country is, and what it can do; to make hundreds like ourselves in Manitou and Lebanon work together towards health, wealth, comfort and happiness. Can"t you see, my friends, what I"m driving at? I"m for peace and work and wealth and power--not power for myself alone, but power that belongs to all of us. If I can show I"m a good man at my job, maybe better than others, then I have a right to ask you to follow me. If I can"t, then throw me out. I tell you I"m your friend--Max Ingolby is your friend."
"Spy! Spy! Spy!" cried a new voice.
It came from behind the bar. An instant after, the owner of the voice leaped up on the counter. It was Felix Marchand. He had entered by the door behind the bar into Barbazon"s office.
"When I was in India," Marchand cried, "I found a snake in the bed.
I killed it before it stung me. There"s a snake in the bed of Manitou--what are you going to do with it?"
The men swayed, murmured, and shrill shouts of "Marchand! Marchand!
Marchand!" went up. The crowd heaved upon Ingolby. "One minute!"
he called with outstretched arm and commanding voice. They paused.
Something in him made him master of them even then.
At that moment two men were fiercely fighting their way through the crowd towards where Ingolby was. They were Jowett and Osterhaut. Ingolby saw them coming.
"Go back--go back!" he called to them.
Suddenly a drunken navvy standing on a table in front of and to the left of Ingolby seized a horseshoe hanging on the wall, and flung it with an oath.
It caught Ingolby in the forehead, and he fell to the floor without a sound.
A minute afterwards the bar was empty, save for Osterhaut, Jowett, old Barbazon, and his a.s.sistants.
Barbazon and Jowett lifted the motionless figure in their arms, and carried it into a little room.
Then Osterhaut picked up the horseshoe tied with its gay blue ribbons, now stained with blood, and put it in his pocket.
"For luck," he said.
CHAPTER XI. THE SENTENCE OF THE PATRIN
Fleda waked suddenly, but without motion; just a wide opening of the eyes upon the darkness, and a swift beating of the heart, but not the movement of a muscle. It was as though some inward monitor, some gnome of the hidden life had whispered of danger to her slumbering spirit. The waking was a complete emergence, a vigilant and searching attention.
There was something on her breast weighing it down, yet with a pressure which was not weight alone, and maybe was not weight at all as weight is understood. Instantly there flashed through her mind the primitive belief that a cat will lie upon the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of children and suck their breath away. Strange and even absurd as it was, it seemed to her that a cat was pressing and pressing down upon her breast. There could be no mistaking the feline presence. Now with a sudden energy of the body, she threw the Thing from her, and heard it drop, with the softness of feline feet, on the Indian rug upon the floor.