CHAPTER VIIIA CONTRIBUTION TO THE CAUSEI confess that, despite all discouragements, I spent as much time as I could spare from my duties in haunting the Kendrick house; yet I found the pursuit of Peter Bolton, and the oversight of the Council of Nine, a more exacting task than I had expected.On Peter Bolton's ultimate purposes I could secure no direct light whatever. For the time he appeared to have suspended relations with the Council of Nine, yet his activities in conferring with bankers, brokers, merchants, lawyers, and men of no classification, were so various and bewildering that I was compelled to keep watch in many directions. Twice Parks and Waldorf, the president of the Council of Nine, visited his office, and were turned away without seeing him, though on at least one of these visits he was within. His plans appeared to have taken another direction than the schemes of the Council, yet there was nothing in his movements that revealed whatever designs he might have against Wharton Kendrick's property or life.Nevertheless I took the precaution to station a number of watchmen about Wharton Kendrick's house, masqueraded as gardeners and stable-men. The episode of the spy had shown plainly that Peter Bolton's emissaries had no scruples about invading the premises. Furthermore, Big Sam's assurance that the highbinders would never dare to attack the white man's place, confirmed as it was by the history of San Francisco's Chinese population, did not justify me in neglecting precautions. Even a highbinder might have an exception to his rules, especially when more than one tong was interested in the recovery of Moon Ying. Therefore I kept two men on guard in the daytime and four at night.One effect of Peter Bolton's activities was easy to discover. His contribution to the cause had inspired a marvelous activity among the agents of the Council of Nine. Clubs were organized, a few for the propagation of radical ideas, but most of them for the ostensible purpose of driving the Chinese from the city. The intent of the Council was to make the revolutionary clubs the main strength of their organization, but it soon became evident that the anti-Chinese movement had outrun their plans. "The Chinese Must Go," was so popular a cry that it was taken up by elements over which the Council had no control. But outwardly the Council was prospering, and the meetings inaugurated by Parks and Kearney down by the Old City Hall soon attracted such crowds that they were encouraged to seek a larger forum on the sand-lots by the New City Hall. The plans for driving out the Chinese were seized upon eagerly by the thousands of unemployed workmen, as well as by the disorderly elements of the city's population. Multitudes attended the meetings that were held nightly and on Sundays, and sporadic outbreaks of hoodlums, who beat Chinamen and plundered wash-houses, were frequently reported. The newspapers began to pay attention to the meetings, and as a genuine interest was shown in them by the working-men of the city, there was soon a hot rivalry to see which paper should attract the largest sales by the fullest accounts of the speeches and the most extended reports of the growth of the anti-Chinese propaganda. Under the stimulus of publicity the movement spread with startling rapidity, the politicians began to count upon it as a force to be reckoned with, and serious-minded citizens were shaking their heads over the possibilities of disorder that it covered.These possibilities were increased by the threatening condition of affairs in the eastern States. There was a rapidly increasing tension in the relations between capital and labor, and a railroad strike was organizing that would paralyze industry from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. It was felt that the spark of Eastern example might furnish the torch for San Francisco.With matters in this state, Clark came to me one day with every mark of perturbation and alarm."The Council of Nine is in funds," he gasped."That's an enviable situation," I replied. "Where did they get them, and what are they going to do with them? Hold a smoker at the House of Blazes?"Clark looked a little vexed at the bantering tone."They've bought guns with them, sir.""Bought guns?" I said. "How many? A dozen?""Guess again," said Clark, with an aggrieved air at my declination to take his information seriously. "If you'd say a thousand you'd come nearer to it.""A thousand!" I cried, rousing at last to the gravity of his information. "How could they do that?""Easy enough," said Clark. "They got thirty thousand dollars night before last, and yesterday they cleaned out all the gun stores in town.""Thirty thousand dollars!" I exclaimed. "Whew! Is this old Bolton's second contribution?""I reckon he's the one that give it," said Clark, "but I can't be sure. There ain't any one else with that much money that's interested in the cause. Habernicht was trying to tell me that it came from the International Treasury, but I'm willing to bet my boots that the International Treasury never had thirty thousand cents in it, let alone thirty thousand dollars."It was Peter Bolton, beyond doubt, who had taken the role of fairy godfather for the Council of Nine, and I raked my imagination in vain to conceive the purpose that had inspired this amazing generosity."I reckon," continued Clark, "that they've got a corner on everything that'll shoot, except what's in the arsenals, and they're counting on getting those when the time comes to rise.""Well," said I, "I don't see just how this affects Colonel Kendrick, for they could get him with one rifle just as well as with a thousand. But whatever the game is, we can block it right now. Just give me the number of the building where they have stored those guns, and I'll see the Chief of Police.""Good God!" cried Clark, seizing my arm. "Do you want to get me killed?""Why," I argued, "you aren't the only man who knows about them. There must be dozens if not hundreds of men in the scheme, and there would be no more reason to put the blame on you than on the others."Clark shook his head, and his white face showed the fierce grip of terror."I'm a dead man if you go to the police," he said huskily, gulping down the lump that rose in his dry throat. And no repetition or variation of my argument could move him. So at last I promised to keep the information from the police, and sought Wharton Kendrick's office to lay this perplexing information before my client.Kendrick was not at his desk."He went out some time ago, Mr. Hampden," said a clerk."Where would I be likely to find him? It's quite important.""He didn't say, and I got the idea that he wasn't likely to be back to-day."I wrote a note giving information of the armament, and leaving it on his desk, turned to go, when the door opened and General Wilson bustled in. His round red face glowed in the frame of his short, yellow-gray side-whiskers even more fiercely by day than by night, and his self-importance was even more scintillant than when he had bustled into Kendrick's library."What! Kendrick not in?" he cried explosively. "Why, I don't see how you San Franciscans do any business. I haven't found a man in his office this morning. Why, God bless me, is this you, Ham--Hamfer--""Hampden," I said, assisting him to the name. "I'm glad to see you, General Wilson.""Exactly--Hampden--Hampden," said the general, shaking hands. "I never forget a name or a face. It's a trick you ought to cultivate, my boy. You'll find it of more importance than half your legal learning, when it comes to the practical business of the law. There's nothing better in managing clients and jurors and court officials. It's likely to be worth anything to you to come on a man you haven't met for twenty years and call him by his name. The beggar always beams with satisfaction--thinks you've been doing nothing all those years but carry his name and face in your mind, and is ready to do you a good turn if it comes his way.""Very true," I said, as General Wilson paused for breath."Now I remember," he continued, with a wave of his arm, "that I won one of my hardest fought cases by that little talent of being able to call a man's name after I have once heard it. 'Twas when the Rockland and Western was suing the R. D. & G. about the right of way into St. Louis. The matter was worth a trifle of two or three million dollars, and we had a jury trial, and it was a damned ticklish business. 'It's two to one on the other side,' said the president of the Rockland and Western, 'and if you pull us out, Wilson, you're a wonder.' 'God knows what a jury will do,' I told him, 'but if it's in the power of mortal man I'll get you out with honors.' I talked to cheer him up, but I didn't feel half as hopeful as I let on to be. My unprofessional opinion was that we were in for a licking. I'll bet you the price of this building, Hampden, that we would have had to take our medicine if it hadn't been for an old acquaintance of mine. I used to know him when we were young fellows in Ohio. He was clerking in a grocery store while I was dusting the books in Lawyer Boker's office. Now, what was his name? Oh,--ah--yes, I remember--Westlake, or something like that. Well, as he came into the court, I saw him, and by the look on his face I was sure he was called in the case. I knew him in an instant and I hurried up to him, shook him by the hand, and said 'Westburn'--yes, it was Westburn, not Westlake--I said 'Westburn, God bless you, it's thirty-five years since the night we dropped that watermelon, and I haven't got over mourning the loss of it yet.' By Jove, Hampden, you ought to have seen the fellow beam to think that the big lawyer from Chicago had remembered him all that time, and we had a five-minute chat that turned out to be worth everything to my clients. He got on the jury, and there wasn't a point or an argument I made that was lost on him. He told me afterward that he never heard a speech to beat the one I delivered in closing for my side. Well, the jury was out nearly two days, but on the strength of that speech my old friend talked the last of them over and we got judgment. So there, my boy, you see what it's worth to call up names. It's one of the tricks of trade that we share with statesmen and kings.""And hotel clerks," I added irreverently, with something of envy for the general's talent at finding cause for self-congratulation.General Wilson flushed a little deeper red, and looked at me doubtingly. I hastened to add an expression of complete agreement with the conclusions he had announced."Well, God bless us," he cried, "I can't be waiting here all day for Kendrick. I want to talk over that tule land proposition with him, but as he isn't here I'm going over to talk on the same business with a miserly old curmudgeon named Bolton. As it concerns Kendrick, in a way, maybe you'd like to come along as his representative." And with a commanding gesture General Wilson intimated his desire for my company, and linked arms with me in the affectation of deepest confidence.I had for several days been meditating on the problem of an interview with Peter Bolton, and, accepting General Wilson's offer of a convoy as a gift of benignant chance, was soon climbing the stair to the curmudgeon's office to the boom-boom of General Wilson's gasconades, and wondering how I might surprise the secret of Peter Bolton's plans.CHAPTER IXPETER BOLTONPeter Bolton's office conformed to the first principles of art. It supplied an appropriate frame for Peter Bolton himself. The outer room presented to the eye of the visitor four bare and grimy walls that had once been white, a bare and worn board floor, two kitchen chairs and a rickety desk. There was, however, nothing shrinking or apologetic about this meager display of furnishing. It smacked not of poverty, but of an inclement disposition in its owner. In the inner room the walls and floor were as bare and grimy as those of the outer office, but the furnishing was a little less disregardful of personal comfort, for it held five solid chairs, a solid safe that made a show of bidding defiance to burglars, and a solid desk, behind which sat Peter Bolton himself.The outer office was empty, save for the uninviting chairs and the rickety desk, and General Wilson, with a quick jerk, opened the inner door and bustled into the room."Ha-ha, Bolton!" he cried, "I catch you with your washee-washee man, eh? That's right, that's right. Cleanliness next to godliness, you know--though you can't always be sure that the Chinese washman is to be recommended on either count. Hey, John, you trot along now. I want to talk to Mr. Bolton."Glancing over General Wilson's head I saw the thin, sour face of Peter Bolton, and behind the mask of its dry expression I thought I recognized a passing flash of mental disturbance that suggested fear, or even consternation. Then a sardonic smile tightened and drew down the corners of the mouth, and his hard, nasal voice twanged out a grudging word of recognition.At the same moment the "washee-washee" man stepped to the doorway, and I was startled to find myself looking into the face of Big Sam. He was dressed in the coarse blue jeans and trousers of the Chinese working-man, his hat was drawn down over his eyes, and his face was of a darker hue than I remembered it. But the man shone through his disguise as plainly as the sun shines through colored glass.I recovered from my surprise in an instant, and halted him in the outer room."This is a lucky meeting," I said. "I have been wondering whether I ought to report to you about your ward. She is badly hurt, but is now out of danger."The man glanced at me with expressionless eye."I no sabby you," he said with the true coolie accent. "What you wan'?""Oh," I returned, repressing my amusement at this preposterous attempt to deceive me, "if Kwan Sam Suey, sometimes known as Big Sam, doesn't want to hear what I have to say, I am in no hurry to say it.""No sabby Big Sam," said the Chinaman gruffly."And I should really like to know," I said, lowering my voice, "what Big Sam is doing with Mr. Bolton.""I no sabby Missah Bolton," growled the Oriental."You don't 'sabby' the man you've just been talking with?""I no sabby him name. I no sabby you' name. I sabby him one man--I sabby you 'nothe' man. I come sell him lotte'y ticket. You likee buy lotte'y ticket?"This appeared to be an excellent chance to trap the wily Oriental. I replied that I would risk twenty-five cents on his game, and waited with a smile for the excuse that would be invented to put me off. But Big Sam had made up for his part with more attention to detail than I had supposed. At my word he calmly drew forth from his capacious sleeve a blank ticket and a marking brush."I make you good ticket," he said gravely, marking ten of the squares. "You sabby Kwan Luey?""Yes, I sabby Kwan Luey." He was one of the big merchants of Chinatown, and among other things did a brisk banking and lottery business among his countrymen."Dlawing to-mollow," said the Chinaman. "You take 'em ticket Kwan Luey you get 'em heap big money." And with a brusk nod he was gone.I stared after him in perplexity. My eyes were never more certain of anything than of the identity of this man with Big Sam. And yet he had carried off his imposture with such assurance that, for a moment after he had disappeared, I was shaken in my conviction. But it was only for a moment. With a glance at the paper in my hand and with a recollection of his parting words, certainty returned, and I was convinced that the ticket was an order on Kwan Luey for money. Was Big Sam trying to bribe me, or was he attempting thus to provide for the expenses of the Chinese girl? Nothing had been said on the delicate point of meeting her charges for food, care and lodging. Possibly he had chosen this eccentric way of putting the money in my hands.There was, however, another question more perplexing than that of money. What were the relations between Bolton and Big Sam? Here for the second time I had evidence that they were in secret alliance. The business of supplying coolie workmen was not of such disrepute that it had to be conducted in disguise. Could it be possible that Big Sam was one of Bolton's agents in the plot to overthrow Wharton Kendrick? And if so, was the Chinese girl brought under the Kendrick roof as a part of Peter Bolton's tortuous policy?As there was no answer to my questions to be had by studying the ticket Big Sam had given me, I thrust it into my pocket and followed General Wilson into Peter Bolton's private den.There are certain natures whose approach brings an access of mental or physical repulsion. A man may conform to all the sanitary laws, and yet appeal quite as objectionably to the inner spirit as the Eskimo reeking of spoiled blubber appeals to the physical senses.To approach Peter Bolton was like putting your hand on the spider to which current metaphor compared him. If you liked spiders, he was doubtless a pleasant enough companion. But as for me, I share the popular prejudice against the arachnidæ, and found myself at once in mental antagonism to Mr. Bolton.General Wilson had plunged into a brisk but one-sided conversation with his curmudgeon. The first words I had missed in the encounter with Big Sam, but as I crossed the threshold he was holding forth in his most coruscating style."By George, Bolton, I wish I had time to show you how it ought to be done, but I've got to think of getting back to New York toward the end of the month. Why, this is my vacation time, and I'm carrying on five trades that count up to three or four million dollars. Of course, I couldn't afford to touch 'em under ordinary circumstances, but one has to do these little things for one's friends. I took a run down to New York just before I came out here, and we had a little dinner at the club--oh, there were only a dozen of us, or so--but big men all of them. Why, the men around that table could have signed a joint note for three hundred million--and got it discounted, too, if there was a bank big enough to do the business. Young Vanderbilt was there--I suppose we must call him Old Van, now the Commodore is gone--Astor, Belmont, and the rest of that crowd. Jay Gould couldn't come, because he and Vanderbilt don't speak. I was telling them that I was going to make a flying trip out here, when Vanderbilt pipes up, and says, 'General Wilson, you're just the man we want. There are good bargains to be picked up out there, and you must keep your eye out for them.' And the others chimed in and said, 'Yes, you must do some business for us while you are out there.' 'Hold on, gentlemen,' I said; 'I'm going out for a vacation, and I can't burden my mind with business.' But it was no use. The more I protested, the warmer they got over it--insisted that I could get lots more fun out of the trip if I did business than I could if I didn't--said it was like a man going for a walk--if he's just out for exercise it's confounded stupid work, and he gets tired in no time; but put a gun on his shoulder and turn him out to look for deer and he will tramp all day and think he's had no end of fun. Well, at last I had to give in. What can you do when you've got three hundred million against you? So I said, 'Gentlemen, let's have everything regular. Get up a syndicate--make it a blind pool--and I'll guarantee to bring you back something worth while.' Well, they jumped at that idea like cats at a mouse, and in ten minutes they had made up a five-million-dollar pool. So I expect to put in at least three million before I leave. I closed one big trade with Governor Stanford last night, and I've got three or four others on the books now."Peter Bolton's gaunt sallow face, with its projecting jaw, lost none of its sourness, but a sardonic smile tightened his thin lips and drew down the corners of his mouth."Well," he drawled in his cracked nasal tone, "you can have that tract of mine for six hundred thousand.""Couldn't think of it," said General Wilson bruskly. "Two hundred thousand would be a fancy figure for it. I don't want it, anyhow, unless I can get that piece of Kendrick's just above it."Bolton's thin lips tightened once more, and a slight flush passed over his sallow face."Kendrick's place?" he said, the sarcastic drawl quickening a little. "I shouldn't think you'd want to show yourself again in New York if you'd 'a' bought that swamp. What'd he ask you for it?""A stiff figure, a stiff figure," said General Wilson with a wave of his arm, as if Bolton's question were a missile that he was fending aside. "It's swampy enough, and needs any quantity of leveeing and draining. But it's rich land. I've been over it all. I don't say I'll buy it, but I might, if I can get it at a reasonable price.""You can get My Land at My Price," drawled the sarcastic voice of Peter Bolton, audibly putting capital letters to his words and making the possessive pronoun appear very large. "I said six hundred thousand, didn't I? Well, it's had a raise since then. It's seven hundred thousand now. I shouldn't be surprised if it went to eight hundred thousand before you got out."General Wilson appeared to regard this as an excellent piece of pleasantry."It looks to a man up a tree," he said good-humoredly, "as though you didn't want me to buy Kendrick's land."Bolton's lips drew into a sneer."I don't know why I should want you to buy Kendrick's land," he said. "You can have My Land at My Price," he repeated, the sneer deepening on his face. "My price is nine hundred thousand now.""Well," said General Wilson with a chuckle, "I've been in Chicago through some pretty exciting times, and I've had real-estate deals in nearly every part of the country, but I never saw property go up so fast as that piece of yours out in the San Joaquin swamps." Then, changing his tone suddenly, he asked: "Why do you want to stop the trade on Kendrick's tract? I see that you're nobody's fool, and you know as well as I do that we've got to have your place if we take his. Now, what's your game?"A look of malevolent shrewdness came over Bolton's face, and he pursed up his mouth as though he was afraid his thoughts were going to escape."If you would like to know," he drawled at last, "you might ask Kendrick's young man standing over there by the door."I was startled at this sudden attack. Peter Bolton had to this minute given no sign that he was aware of my existence, and I was filled with wonder to know how he had discovered that I was in Kendrick's employ. There was nothing to do but to put up a bold front on the matter, and I said:"The only thing I could tell about the trouble is that the Council of Nine has plenty of money and is spending it like water."A covering of gray ashes appeared to spread over the sallow face of Peter Bolton, and caused General Wilson to spring to his feet with the exclamation:"Good God, what's the matter?"Peter Bolton waved him back to his seat, and with an effort gasped out:"The Council of Nine! What do you mean by that nonsense? I never heard of such damned foolery before!""Oh, yes," said I, pressing my advantage. "Waldorf was up here night before last, you remember, and got thirty thousand dollars. I thought you would like to know that your contribution was being spent with a liberal hand."Peter Bolton's face assumed a gray-green tint, and he cried out:"I don't know what you're talking about. You've gone crazy--" Then, as if he feared that I would take offense at the words, he fell from the attitude of protest to one of cringing obsequiousness. "No, I don't mean that--I mean that I want you to do some business for me."The man appeared carried away with fright; his claw-like hands worked convulsively, and a perspiration started on his forehead. I saw in his eyes a foretaste of the terrors of unsuccessful crime, and that as he remembered the purposes that lay behind those rifles in the Council's armory, his conscience conjured up the vision of the police and the hangman stretching forth their hands to seize him."Good God, Bolton!" cried General Wilson again. "What have you been doing? You couldn't look more upset if you had murdered your grandmother and Hampden had uncovered the corpse.""It's nothing--nothing," gasped Bolton, recovering himself with an effort; "just a little joke we have--just a little joke." And he framed his thin lips into the semblance of a ghastly smile.General Wilson's red face grew redder yet as an angry color swept over it."Well, you've got too many jokes to suit me, and a damned queer taste in humor--that's all I've got to say about it. I came to talk business, and you've been wasting my time with your tomfoolery." And with an angry wave of his hand he got to his feet and strode out.Almost before General Wilson had reached the hall, Bolton had turned eagerly to me."Come in and shut the door," he said with a quavering voice. "That gilded ass may stop to listen."He was silent a minute as I obeyed him, and I surmised that he was turning over in his mind the possible plans by which I might be gagged. And as he motioned me to a seat his calculating eye was taking my measure with all the coolness of a butcher estimating the value of a steer."You are a young man," he began with an insinuating drawl.I admitted the charge, but offered him the consolation to be drawn from the theory that I should probably get over it in time. He paid no attention to my flippant suggestion, but continued in a slow tone of ironic emphasis:"You are old enough, though, to know that you have got to look out for your own Interests. That's what every Man must do, if he wants to keep in Business." Peter Bolton's sarcastic drawl punctuated his important words with capitals. "If you don't think enough of your Interests to look out for Yourself, nobody is going to look out for them for you.""If you want to do me a good turn," I said with strategic frankness, "you might tell me what your business is with Big Sam."He was not to be caught off his guard again. He paid no attention to my words, but continued with more of propitiation in his voice than I had considered possible."Now, you're a Man of the World--young as you are--and you have seen something of Business. You have seen the man who has given his best years to making money for the other fellow turned adrift as soon as the other fellow finds somebody who can make more money for him. That's the Gratitude of Business, young man--the Gratitude of Business. I've seen a man who made fifty thousand dollars for his employer in a trade turned out inside of six months because somebody offered to work for twenty-five dollars less a month. That's what you get when you look out for your Employer's interests instead of your Own." The depth of sarcasm in Peter Bolton's drawl was portentous.I did not know whether to be amused or indignant at this attempt to teach me the folly of loyalty and the essential respectability of treachery. So I gave a nod of comprehension, which he took for encouragement, and he continued:"Now, I'm a plain-speaking old fellow, and I won't talk nonsense to you about Gratitude or Friendship. I won't say a word about the things I'll do for you Some day. I'll just talk Cash in Hand to you, with no back bills to be paid with promises on either side.""Very good," I replied, "but I'd rather you would answer the questions about Big Sam and the Council of Nine."Bolton gave me a cunning look."I want you to take up some private business for me," he said slowly, "and I'll give you ten thousand dollars for sixty days' work.""What work?" I asked sharply, my indignation getting the better of my amusement."Confidential work," said Bolton deliberately. "I want a representative in Kendrick's office, and you're the best man I know for the job."My repressed indignation broke forth at this brazen proffer of a bribe, and I jumped to my feet and shook my fist in Peter Bolton's face."You old scoundrel!" I cried. "If you were a younger man, I'd thump the breath out of you!""You are a bigger Fool than I thought," said Bolton in his most sarcastic voice. And he threw back his head and opened his mouth in silent laughter."I give you warning," I continued, "that I shall tell Colonel Kendrick of your offer."The unabashed Bolton drew down the corners of his mouth in a sarcastic smile, and his sarcastic voice followed me as I opened the door:"If Kendrick offers you eleven thousand, come back and I'll see if I can do better."CHAPTER XA COUNCIL OF WAR"No," said Laura Kendrick, in her piquant voice, "uncle isn't at home, but he sent word he would be back at nine o'clock. You look very important, but I'm sure it's something that will wait an hour.""It is a bit important," I replied, thinking grimly of the thirty-thousand-dollar contribution to the Council of Nine, the thousand rifles, and Peter Bolton's self-revelations in his attempt to bribe me. "I've been hunting Mr. Kendrick all day about it. But it has kept without spoiling for eight or nine hours already, so another sixty minutes will do no harm.""Well, then," said Miss Kendrick, "I won't keep you standing in the hall. I came out when your name was announced, to let you know that Mr. Baldwin is in the library, and Mercy will be down in a few minutes. So you can have your choice of waiting in there, or you can find an easy chair in uncle's den.""Oh, if that is the choice, give me the library, by all means.""You may think your tone is complimentary, but I'll tell you I don't consider it so. He's a very agreeable man, and you had better be very civil, or I shall banish you to the den, after all." Then she changed her half-bantering tone to one of earnestness, and halted me at the library door. "What is it you are about?" she asked. "Is uncle in danger?""I believe not," I replied.She laid her hand upon my arm."You would not answer so unless he were. What is it that you fear?" And her brown eyes looked anxiously up into mine."There is no danger that I can learn of that threatens your uncle. I believe he is perfectly safe."She threw my arm aside with a gesture of irritation."Do you think I have not the right to know?" she exclaimed. "Do you think I could be of no use? Do you think I ought to be shut up in the dark, wondering what is going to happen?""You are worrying yourself without need," I said. "You can hold me responsible for his safety.""It is the trouble with old Mr. Bolton, is it not?" she asked after a pause.I balanced the advantages of a lie and the truth."Yes, it is on that business that I am engaged.""And you will tell me nothing about it." There was a trace of bitterness in her tone, and giving a shrug of resentful resignation she opened the door to the library and preceded me into the room.Mr. Baldwin sat there wrapped in his superiority to all created things, and gave me a stiff nod of recognition, but melted into something resembling geniality as Laura Kendrick took a chair by his side. Mercy Fillmore had come in at the other door while we had been carrying on our skirmish in the hall, and now made room for me on the sofa beside her."I'm glad you came," she said. "I wanted to ask you something." The soothing quality of Mercy Fillmore's voice and manner was doubly welcome after the rasping that Laura Kendrick had managed to inflict upon my spirit as the just punishment for the crime of incommunicativeness.I responded to Miss Fillmore's greeting with fitting words."Well," she continued, "what I wanted to ask you was this: Do you think there is any danger to this house from having the Chinese girl here?""Why, no; I hardly think so. Big Sam assured me that there was not." Then, after a moment's hesitation, I added: "While I don't doubt Big Sam's good faith in the matter, I have taken the precaution to have the place well guarded. There are four watchmen outside at the present moment--unless I underestimate the attractions of the corner grocery; and the highbinder who tries to get in will have the warmest five minutes of his life.""How kind of you to attend to that!" said Miss Fillmore. "But I wasn't thinking of the highbinders. What set me to asking you was a meeting I had with Mr. Parks to-day.""Parks!" I exclaimed in surprise. "You know him?""Oh, yes, indeed. We were children together, and I count him as a good friend." A blush that tinted her cheeks suggested that the friendship was a little nearer than she would have me believe."Then I wish you would get him to cut his hair! I think it would save him from getting hanged.""How absurd you are!""Merely an application of the theory of clothes--Sartor Resartus, and all that, you know. Dress to a part, and you get the spirit of it.""You are joking," said Miss Fillmore, with the seriousness of one to whom the sense of humor is beyond understanding."Not at all," I returned. "If Parks came down to the normal supply of hair he might get rid of some abnormal ideas that are going to bring him into trouble."Miss Fillmore looked at me doubtfully a moment, and again expressed her opinion that I was joking. Then she put aside the subject as one beyond her comprehension, and continued:"But never mind. I met him this afternoon when I was out taking the air, and he said that there was going to be trouble in the city, and asked if we kept any Chinese servants.""Yes? And if you did--?""Well, we don't, and I told him so, and he said if we did we had better turn them away in a hurry. Then he went on to tell me that there was going to be an uprising of the people, and that the unemployed might make an attack on the Chinese and those who hire them. Now, do you think that the presence of our poor little Moon Ying will bring the mob here?""Mr. Parks could answer that question much better than I.""I asked him, and he said 'Oh, no'--that his people were not warring on women or the sick; but I feared he was too hopeful.""I do not think there is the slightest danger," I replied. "If Mr. Parks' friends get to be too obstreperous, the police will make short work of them. But I don't think they are enterprising enough to get so far away from Tar Flat." I spoke with a confidence that was more assumed than real."Oh, indeed they are. There was some one here to-day about the matter. Laura, my dear," she said, raising her voice and earning a frown from Mr. Baldwin by breaking into his monopoly; "Laura, my dear, didn't you say there was some one here to-day inquiring about Chinese?""Indeed there was," said Miss Laura, emphasizing the statement with an indignant nod. "He was a very disagreeable man, and insisted on seeing the lady of the house, so at last I went to the door. I found him horribly impolite. I had to tell him three times that I was the lady before he would believe me.""What sort of looking man was he? And what did he say?" I asked."Oh, he was well-looking enough--a man of good size, about thirty, with a black mustache and an insolent way. What he said was that he hoped we didn't employ any Chinese. I just told him that I was much obliged to him for his interest in us, but as I couldn't see that it concerned him I would ask to be excused. Then he got saucy, and said that if I wouldn't listen to him I would have to listen to a mob--that wasn't what he called it, but that's what he meant. He said he was a delegate from some anti-coolie club or convention, or something of the sort, with a hundred thousand members, and they were going to see that the Chinese were discharged and white men put in their places.""That's rather a large contract," said Mr. Baldwin. "I hope you shut the door in his face. I should like to have given employment to one white man to boot him off the place.""Well," continued Miss Kendrick, "I was too mad to tell him that uncle is so opposed to the Chinese that he's never allowed one about the house. I just said that we hadn't any Chinese now, but if he would come around in about two weeks we would try to accommodate him.""A soft answer," I said. "I hope it turned away wrath.""Well, he got saucier, and I told him to go, and he went. I'm afraid I wasn't polite. But I'm as sorry as sorry can be now, for he told me he had been out of work for six months because the Chinese had taken the factory that had employed him, and I'm sure it is a very unpleasant thing to be turned out of the place where you make your living." Miss Kendrick's voice had softened with her last words, and the light of womanly sympathy shone in her eyes."You are right, my dear," said Miss Fillmore. "It has been a hard year for many. We have been appealed to by scores of men who have been turned out of one place and could find no other.""Serves 'em right," said Mr. Baldwin shortly. "If they can't keep their jobs, they ought to lose them. This talk about Chinese competition is absolute nonsense. A competent man can find work any time. The anti-Chinese howl comes from the fellows who don't want to work, and wouldn't work if there wasn't a Chinaman within eight thousand miles.""I hope you are right," said Miss Kendrick. "It isn't good for the spirits to think of men going hungry when they are willing to labor.""You needn't distress yourself, Miss Laura," said Mr. Baldwin, with an air of contempt for the difficulties of the unemployed. "You couldn't drive those fellows to work with a Gatling gun. This talk about Chinese taking away their jobs is just an excuse for them to get out on street corners and howl about their wrongs, in the hope that somebody like you and Mercy will set up a soup-house for them.""I am afraid you haven't looked into the matter," said Miss Fillmore. "Our Helping Hand Society has found much real distress from want of employment. You don't agree with Mr. Baldwin, do you, Mr. Hampden?""Certainly not," said I, with some irritation at Mr. Baldwin's scornful airs. "The anti-Chinese cry may have been taken up by those who had rather talk than work, but there is plenty of foundation for the statement that the Chinese are driving white men out of employment.""I have found nothing of the sort in my experience," said Mr. Baldwin contemptuously."Well, your experience is not that of men in business," I returned warmly. "You will find that class for class the Chinaman can run the white man out of any line he enters. The Chinese laborer can work and live on less wages than the white laborer; the Chinese merchant can grow wealthy in a market that would throw the white merchant into bankruptcy, and the Chinese manufacturer thrives under conditions that drive his white competitor to the wall.""What do you mean by talking that way, Hampden?" cried Mr. Baldwin with irritation. "You know well enough that you're not serious. It's impossible."A sharp answer was on the tip of my tongue when Miss Kendrick interposed."That will do for a very stupid debate," she said. "You can put the rest of it in the papers. I think I hear the doctor, and I want Mr. Hampden to come and see him." And with a peremptory wave of her hand she rose, and I followed her out into the hall. As the door closed she dropped her commanding manner. "Do you know it is ten o'clock?" she said, "and uncle hasn't come in yet." Her tone was troubled."Is it anything unusual?" I asked."I suppose you think it's a case of nerves," she said, "and maybe it is. But I shouldn't worry if he hadn't sent word to me that he would be here by nine. I'm afraid something has happened, and I want you to see about it.""Have you any idea where he went?""He spoke of going to Mr. Coleman's.""William T. Coleman's?""Yes.""Well, that will be a good place to start a search, then." And I secured my hat."It's good of you to go," said Miss Kendrick."Am I forgiven?" I asked, taking the small hand that lay so temptingly near my own, and bending over it."There, that will do," she said, snatching her hand away and retreating in some confusion. "Your pardon for being an obstinate man-creature is signed, and you'd better not imperil it by any Louis Quatorze manners. And I'm sure you'd better not waste any more time."Once out of the house my fears for Wharton Kendrick became more lively, and I hastened to the Coleman residence."Take my card to Colonel Kendrick," I said briskly to the man who opened the door.He looked at it doubtfully a moment. But my assured air, and the "Attorney at law" that announced my business in unmistakable type impressed him, and he called a fellow servant to his side, gave him the card with a word of instruction, and advised me to be seated.After a few minutes of waiting I wondered whether I would not have done better, after all, to ask speech with the master of the house, and I was just on the point of requesting the Cerberus to take my name to Mr. Coleman, when my dubitations were cut short by the opening of a door, and a sudden outburst of voices, which softened to an indistinguishable murmur as it closed again, and Colonel Kendrick came walking down the hall."Ah, Hampden," he said gravely, stroking his flame-tinted whiskers, "I'm not sure whether I am glad to see you or not. What has happened? Anything?""Well, I'm in no doubt about being glad to see you," I returned. "I've been suspecting you were knocked on the head.""Pooh!" said Wharton Kendrick. "I'm in no danger. Don't worry about me. What you want to do is to find out what the other fellow is doing. Can you tell me that?""Certainly. He left his office at six o'clock, went directly to his house, and hasn't stirred out of it since.""Very good. Now, I believe you had something to tell me." And his eye wandered uneasily to the door from behind which the confused murmur swelled with tantalizing indistinctness."Yes: I have been hunting you all day to tell you that I received word this morning that the Council of Nine had bought a thousand rifles."This bit of news brought no answering sign of surprise on the face of my client."Well," he said thoughtfully, "I wasn't much behind you in getting the information. I heard about it this afternoon on the street.""On the street!" I exclaimed. "It was told to me as a profound secret." It seemed an altogether perplexing thing that the information that Clark had considered it death to reveal should be the talk of commercial San Francisco."Well," said Wharton Kendrick with a smile, "if it's a secret it's one that needs a good deal of help in keeping it. I heard it from a dozen different directions.""There will be some astonished men in the Council if they hear of this report," I said.A grim smile wrinkled Wharton Kendrick's ruddy cheeks, and drove for a moment the thoughtful look from his eyes. He put his hands in his pockets and threw himself back in his chair."Well," he said, "you can expect them to have an attack of heart disease at the breakfast-table then. It will all be in the papers in the morning. But, to tell the truth, I got the impression that the nine members of the Council and all their friends were giving their afternoon to circulating the report."I was a little piqued at the staleness of my information."Since you are so well-posted about the purchase of the rifles--" I began."The alleged purchase of the rifles," interrupted Wharton Kendrick."The purchase of the rifles," I repeated. "I suppose I don't need to tell you where the money came from to pay for them.""Oh," said Wharton Kendrick carelessly, "it doesn't take much money to get up a report.""Well, it took thirty thousand dollars for this one.""Pooh, Hampden, you've been dreaming. That crowd couldn't raise thirty thousand cents.""Not alone, I grant you. But you will admit that it might be done with the assistance of a generous-hearted millionaire who has been convinced of the loftiness of their aims.""What the devil are you driving at, Hampden? Talk plain United States." Wharton Kendrick sat bolt upright, and looked at me sternly, with the light of half-comprehension in his eyes."In plain language, then, Peter Bolton paid thirty thousand dollars into the treasury of the Council of Nine night before last, and the rifles have been bought with his money."Kendrick jumped to his feet. His ruddy face went pale, and then turned ruddier than ever."Bolton!" he cried. "How do you know that?"I gave Clark's account of the matter, recalled Bolton's dealings with the Council, and clenched the conclusion with the corroborative testimony of my interview with Bolton in his office. Wharton Kendrick settled back in his chair and received my tale in a brown study. Before I had done, he interrupted me."I see his game. This puts a different face on the matter. Come in here." And rising suddenly he seized me by the arm and marched me into the room from which he had come, with the authoritative air of a policeman haling a burglar to prison.The room to which I was introduced in this ignominious fashion was of moderate size, and the score or so of men who were gathered there filled it comfortably. I had noted in the company several of the leading financial men of the city, when Wharton Kendrick brought me to a halt before a tall, broad-shouldered, full-faced man, with a long gray mustache, kindly gray eyes, and a calm, resourceful expression."Coleman, let me introduce my attorney, Mr. Hampden,"--I became suddenly grateful that he had presented me in this character--"son of Dick Hampden, you remember. He brings news that puts a different face on affairs."I had seen William T. Coleman on the street, and had known something of his romantic history. His leadership of the forces of order in the city, when the criminals of 1851 and 1856 left no remedy to honest men but that of revolution, had impressed my imagination, and I was prepared to feel the glow of admiration that warmed my spirit as he shook my hand with a kindly word. No one could approach the man without receiving the impression of quiet force; yet it was, after all, difficult to realize that this kindly merchant had developed the highest qualities of leadership at two critical periods in the history of the city and state, had headed a successful revolution against a criminal administration of the law, and had, after showing gifts that in another day would have made him a Cromwell or a Simon de Montfort, quietly surrendered his powers when his work was done, and settled contentedly back to the prosaic business of buying and selling goods. I felt proud to be in his presence."What is this important information?" asked Coleman, his gray eyes searching my face with penetrating glance."Chiefly," said Wharton Kendrick, "that we are mistaken in supposing that the story of the purchase of arms is false.""There is no doubt of its truth, gentlemen," I said. "The conspirators have received a large sum of money, and have put a good part of it into guns. They have, on my information, about one thousand rifles."This assurance produced a visible effect on the company."Where did they get this money?" asked the doubting voice of a man who had been introduced as Mr. Partridge."That's not the important point," said Wharton Kendrick, striking in smoothly. "The main thing is to know what they are going to do with it."I understood from this hint that I was to keep the name of Peter Bolton out of the discussion."I have a little special information on that point," I said. And I described the multiform purposes of the Council of Nine as they had appeared from my investigations."How do you know all this?" came from several of the assembled magnates.Wharton Kendrick took the reply out of my mouth."He has practically direct communication with the conspirators," he said. "I think we shall all agree that it is best not to mention names.""Well, this certainly makes it a horse of another color," said Partridge. "In the light of Mr. Hampden's information I withdraw my objections to the plan proposed by Mr. Kendrick."Wharton Kendrick heaved a scarcely perceptible sigh, and whispered to me, "That settles it; Partridge represents the Golconda Bank, and the rest will follow his lead.""That is right," said another. "Let us take no chances." And with a few similar expressions the company appeared to have come to a unanimous agreement."Then," said Wharton Kendrick, turning to Partridge, "I'll put you down for--""For five hundred thousand," replied Partridge."Make it a million," said Kendrick. "Nelson here is going to stand responsible for five hundred thousand, and your people should stand for more.""Well, if you think the emergency calls for it, you can count on a million," said Partridge.One after another the men named the amounts for which they would stand responsible, and Wharton Kendrick jotted down the figures in his memorandum-book."Please make out your checks, gentlemen," he said at last. "Here is ten million dollars pledged to the committee.""That will be enough," said Coleman with decision. "I think that our arrangements cover every point where there can be a break in the markets.""Unless it's M. & N., and the bank we mentioned," said Nelson."Oh, yes," said Kendrick; "our arrangements cover them, too. We've got to back them up till this storm is over. They are bound to go some day, but if they go now there will be a smash all along the line. Partridge will see to getting the best collateral they have, and we'll feed them just enough to keep their doors open.""They will draw pretty heavily on the pool if disorder actually starts," said another."Oh," said Partridge, "we have a very comfortable reserve, and it isn't likely that there will be an actual outbreak.""Well, we have prepared for every emergency," said a stout and sleepy-looking man in the corner; "and as we're likely to have a hard day of it to-morrow, I move we get home and to bed. It's three minutes of midnight, now."The suggestion appeared to be approved, for everybody rose with the breaking-up atmosphere that ends a gathering."One moment," said Coleman, raising his hand. "There is one thing we have neglected to discuss. It is not impossible that the constituted authorities will prove unable to handle the disorderly elements. In case of need, how many of you gentlemen are ready to give your services to the city to preserve order?"There was a silence for a moment. Then one said:"Pshaw, Coleman! This isn't fifty-six! We're twenty years older than we were then, and the police and the militia can handle those fellows if they make any trouble.""I believe," said Coleman with deliberate emphasis, "that we are standing on the crust of a volcano. We should be prepared to give our money and our personal services to the public safety if the need comes.""There's no danger," growled the sleepy man, "so what's the use of worrying about it? Let's go home.""Oh," said Kendrick, "we'll all stand in if there's trouble, of course.""We'll leave Coleman on guard," said another with a facetious nod. "We'll all turn out when he rings the bell."In the bustle of guests departing, Coleman took me by the arm and led me to a corner."Do you know where these guns are stored?" he asked.I balanced my obligations to Clark against the obvious fact that the publicity given to the armament had relieved him from chance of suspicion, and replied:"I understand that they were stored near the headquarters of the Council--Blasius' saloon--known to the police as the House of Blazes.""I think they should belong to the police," said Coleman dryly. "I dare say Chief Ellis has heard of them, but I shall send word to him before I go to bed."In a moment more Kendrick called me, and we bade good night to our host.As we reached the Kendrick house the magnate roused himself from a brown study and said:"The curmudgeon is a rather amusing cuss, Hampden, if you know how to take him. I advise you to cultivate his acquaintance.""Do you mean--" I began."I mean," said Kendrick sharply, "that the closer you get to a man the more you find out about what he intends to do. If he wants to pay for the pleasure of your society it might be a pity to deny him the privilege."
CHAPTER VIII
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CAUSE
I confess that, despite all discouragements, I spent as much time as I could spare from my duties in haunting the Kendrick house; yet I found the pursuit of Peter Bolton, and the oversight of the Council of Nine, a more exacting task than I had expected.
On Peter Bolton's ultimate purposes I could secure no direct light whatever. For the time he appeared to have suspended relations with the Council of Nine, yet his activities in conferring with bankers, brokers, merchants, lawyers, and men of no classification, were so various and bewildering that I was compelled to keep watch in many directions. Twice Parks and Waldorf, the president of the Council of Nine, visited his office, and were turned away without seeing him, though on at least one of these visits he was within. His plans appeared to have taken another direction than the schemes of the Council, yet there was nothing in his movements that revealed whatever designs he might have against Wharton Kendrick's property or life.
Nevertheless I took the precaution to station a number of watchmen about Wharton Kendrick's house, masqueraded as gardeners and stable-men. The episode of the spy had shown plainly that Peter Bolton's emissaries had no scruples about invading the premises. Furthermore, Big Sam's assurance that the highbinders would never dare to attack the white man's place, confirmed as it was by the history of San Francisco's Chinese population, did not justify me in neglecting precautions. Even a highbinder might have an exception to his rules, especially when more than one tong was interested in the recovery of Moon Ying. Therefore I kept two men on guard in the daytime and four at night.
One effect of Peter Bolton's activities was easy to discover. His contribution to the cause had inspired a marvelous activity among the agents of the Council of Nine. Clubs were organized, a few for the propagation of radical ideas, but most of them for the ostensible purpose of driving the Chinese from the city. The intent of the Council was to make the revolutionary clubs the main strength of their organization, but it soon became evident that the anti-Chinese movement had outrun their plans. "The Chinese Must Go," was so popular a cry that it was taken up by elements over which the Council had no control. But outwardly the Council was prospering, and the meetings inaugurated by Parks and Kearney down by the Old City Hall soon attracted such crowds that they were encouraged to seek a larger forum on the sand-lots by the New City Hall. The plans for driving out the Chinese were seized upon eagerly by the thousands of unemployed workmen, as well as by the disorderly elements of the city's population. Multitudes attended the meetings that were held nightly and on Sundays, and sporadic outbreaks of hoodlums, who beat Chinamen and plundered wash-houses, were frequently reported. The newspapers began to pay attention to the meetings, and as a genuine interest was shown in them by the working-men of the city, there was soon a hot rivalry to see which paper should attract the largest sales by the fullest accounts of the speeches and the most extended reports of the growth of the anti-Chinese propaganda. Under the stimulus of publicity the movement spread with startling rapidity, the politicians began to count upon it as a force to be reckoned with, and serious-minded citizens were shaking their heads over the possibilities of disorder that it covered.
These possibilities were increased by the threatening condition of affairs in the eastern States. There was a rapidly increasing tension in the relations between capital and labor, and a railroad strike was organizing that would paralyze industry from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. It was felt that the spark of Eastern example might furnish the torch for San Francisco.
With matters in this state, Clark came to me one day with every mark of perturbation and alarm.
"The Council of Nine is in funds," he gasped.
"That's an enviable situation," I replied. "Where did they get them, and what are they going to do with them? Hold a smoker at the House of Blazes?"
Clark looked a little vexed at the bantering tone.
"They've bought guns with them, sir."
"Bought guns?" I said. "How many? A dozen?"
"Guess again," said Clark, with an aggrieved air at my declination to take his information seriously. "If you'd say a thousand you'd come nearer to it."
"A thousand!" I cried, rousing at last to the gravity of his information. "How could they do that?"
"Easy enough," said Clark. "They got thirty thousand dollars night before last, and yesterday they cleaned out all the gun stores in town."
"Thirty thousand dollars!" I exclaimed. "Whew! Is this old Bolton's second contribution?"
"I reckon he's the one that give it," said Clark, "but I can't be sure. There ain't any one else with that much money that's interested in the cause. Habernicht was trying to tell me that it came from the International Treasury, but I'm willing to bet my boots that the International Treasury never had thirty thousand cents in it, let alone thirty thousand dollars."
It was Peter Bolton, beyond doubt, who had taken the role of fairy godfather for the Council of Nine, and I raked my imagination in vain to conceive the purpose that had inspired this amazing generosity.
"I reckon," continued Clark, "that they've got a corner on everything that'll shoot, except what's in the arsenals, and they're counting on getting those when the time comes to rise."
"Well," said I, "I don't see just how this affects Colonel Kendrick, for they could get him with one rifle just as well as with a thousand. But whatever the game is, we can block it right now. Just give me the number of the building where they have stored those guns, and I'll see the Chief of Police."
"Good God!" cried Clark, seizing my arm. "Do you want to get me killed?"
"Why," I argued, "you aren't the only man who knows about them. There must be dozens if not hundreds of men in the scheme, and there would be no more reason to put the blame on you than on the others."
Clark shook his head, and his white face showed the fierce grip of terror.
"I'm a dead man if you go to the police," he said huskily, gulping down the lump that rose in his dry throat. And no repetition or variation of my argument could move him. So at last I promised to keep the information from the police, and sought Wharton Kendrick's office to lay this perplexing information before my client.
Kendrick was not at his desk.
"He went out some time ago, Mr. Hampden," said a clerk.
"Where would I be likely to find him? It's quite important."
"He didn't say, and I got the idea that he wasn't likely to be back to-day."
I wrote a note giving information of the armament, and leaving it on his desk, turned to go, when the door opened and General Wilson bustled in. His round red face glowed in the frame of his short, yellow-gray side-whiskers even more fiercely by day than by night, and his self-importance was even more scintillant than when he had bustled into Kendrick's library.
"What! Kendrick not in?" he cried explosively. "Why, I don't see how you San Franciscans do any business. I haven't found a man in his office this morning. Why, God bless me, is this you, Ham--Hamfer--"
"Hampden," I said, assisting him to the name. "I'm glad to see you, General Wilson."
"Exactly--Hampden--Hampden," said the general, shaking hands. "I never forget a name or a face. It's a trick you ought to cultivate, my boy. You'll find it of more importance than half your legal learning, when it comes to the practical business of the law. There's nothing better in managing clients and jurors and court officials. It's likely to be worth anything to you to come on a man you haven't met for twenty years and call him by his name. The beggar always beams with satisfaction--thinks you've been doing nothing all those years but carry his name and face in your mind, and is ready to do you a good turn if it comes his way."
"Very true," I said, as General Wilson paused for breath.
"Now I remember," he continued, with a wave of his arm, "that I won one of my hardest fought cases by that little talent of being able to call a man's name after I have once heard it. 'Twas when the Rockland and Western was suing the R. D. & G. about the right of way into St. Louis. The matter was worth a trifle of two or three million dollars, and we had a jury trial, and it was a damned ticklish business. 'It's two to one on the other side,' said the president of the Rockland and Western, 'and if you pull us out, Wilson, you're a wonder.' 'God knows what a jury will do,' I told him, 'but if it's in the power of mortal man I'll get you out with honors.' I talked to cheer him up, but I didn't feel half as hopeful as I let on to be. My unprofessional opinion was that we were in for a licking. I'll bet you the price of this building, Hampden, that we would have had to take our medicine if it hadn't been for an old acquaintance of mine. I used to know him when we were young fellows in Ohio. He was clerking in a grocery store while I was dusting the books in Lawyer Boker's office. Now, what was his name? Oh,--ah--yes, I remember--Westlake, or something like that. Well, as he came into the court, I saw him, and by the look on his face I was sure he was called in the case. I knew him in an instant and I hurried up to him, shook him by the hand, and said 'Westburn'--yes, it was Westburn, not Westlake--I said 'Westburn, God bless you, it's thirty-five years since the night we dropped that watermelon, and I haven't got over mourning the loss of it yet.' By Jove, Hampden, you ought to have seen the fellow beam to think that the big lawyer from Chicago had remembered him all that time, and we had a five-minute chat that turned out to be worth everything to my clients. He got on the jury, and there wasn't a point or an argument I made that was lost on him. He told me afterward that he never heard a speech to beat the one I delivered in closing for my side. Well, the jury was out nearly two days, but on the strength of that speech my old friend talked the last of them over and we got judgment. So there, my boy, you see what it's worth to call up names. It's one of the tricks of trade that we share with statesmen and kings."
"And hotel clerks," I added irreverently, with something of envy for the general's talent at finding cause for self-congratulation.
General Wilson flushed a little deeper red, and looked at me doubtingly. I hastened to add an expression of complete agreement with the conclusions he had announced.
"Well, God bless us," he cried, "I can't be waiting here all day for Kendrick. I want to talk over that tule land proposition with him, but as he isn't here I'm going over to talk on the same business with a miserly old curmudgeon named Bolton. As it concerns Kendrick, in a way, maybe you'd like to come along as his representative." And with a commanding gesture General Wilson intimated his desire for my company, and linked arms with me in the affectation of deepest confidence.
I had for several days been meditating on the problem of an interview with Peter Bolton, and, accepting General Wilson's offer of a convoy as a gift of benignant chance, was soon climbing the stair to the curmudgeon's office to the boom-boom of General Wilson's gasconades, and wondering how I might surprise the secret of Peter Bolton's plans.
CHAPTER IX
PETER BOLTON
Peter Bolton's office conformed to the first principles of art. It supplied an appropriate frame for Peter Bolton himself. The outer room presented to the eye of the visitor four bare and grimy walls that had once been white, a bare and worn board floor, two kitchen chairs and a rickety desk. There was, however, nothing shrinking or apologetic about this meager display of furnishing. It smacked not of poverty, but of an inclement disposition in its owner. In the inner room the walls and floor were as bare and grimy as those of the outer office, but the furnishing was a little less disregardful of personal comfort, for it held five solid chairs, a solid safe that made a show of bidding defiance to burglars, and a solid desk, behind which sat Peter Bolton himself.
The outer office was empty, save for the uninviting chairs and the rickety desk, and General Wilson, with a quick jerk, opened the inner door and bustled into the room.
"Ha-ha, Bolton!" he cried, "I catch you with your washee-washee man, eh? That's right, that's right. Cleanliness next to godliness, you know--though you can't always be sure that the Chinese washman is to be recommended on either count. Hey, John, you trot along now. I want to talk to Mr. Bolton."
Glancing over General Wilson's head I saw the thin, sour face of Peter Bolton, and behind the mask of its dry expression I thought I recognized a passing flash of mental disturbance that suggested fear, or even consternation. Then a sardonic smile tightened and drew down the corners of the mouth, and his hard, nasal voice twanged out a grudging word of recognition.
At the same moment the "washee-washee" man stepped to the doorway, and I was startled to find myself looking into the face of Big Sam. He was dressed in the coarse blue jeans and trousers of the Chinese working-man, his hat was drawn down over his eyes, and his face was of a darker hue than I remembered it. But the man shone through his disguise as plainly as the sun shines through colored glass.
I recovered from my surprise in an instant, and halted him in the outer room.
"This is a lucky meeting," I said. "I have been wondering whether I ought to report to you about your ward. She is badly hurt, but is now out of danger."
The man glanced at me with expressionless eye.
"I no sabby you," he said with the true coolie accent. "What you wan'?"
"Oh," I returned, repressing my amusement at this preposterous attempt to deceive me, "if Kwan Sam Suey, sometimes known as Big Sam, doesn't want to hear what I have to say, I am in no hurry to say it."
"No sabby Big Sam," said the Chinaman gruffly.
"And I should really like to know," I said, lowering my voice, "what Big Sam is doing with Mr. Bolton."
"I no sabby Missah Bolton," growled the Oriental.
"You don't 'sabby' the man you've just been talking with?"
"I no sabby him name. I no sabby you' name. I sabby him one man--I sabby you 'nothe' man. I come sell him lotte'y ticket. You likee buy lotte'y ticket?"
This appeared to be an excellent chance to trap the wily Oriental. I replied that I would risk twenty-five cents on his game, and waited with a smile for the excuse that would be invented to put me off. But Big Sam had made up for his part with more attention to detail than I had supposed. At my word he calmly drew forth from his capacious sleeve a blank ticket and a marking brush.
"I make you good ticket," he said gravely, marking ten of the squares. "You sabby Kwan Luey?"
"Yes, I sabby Kwan Luey." He was one of the big merchants of Chinatown, and among other things did a brisk banking and lottery business among his countrymen.
"Dlawing to-mollow," said the Chinaman. "You take 'em ticket Kwan Luey you get 'em heap big money." And with a brusk nod he was gone.
I stared after him in perplexity. My eyes were never more certain of anything than of the identity of this man with Big Sam. And yet he had carried off his imposture with such assurance that, for a moment after he had disappeared, I was shaken in my conviction. But it was only for a moment. With a glance at the paper in my hand and with a recollection of his parting words, certainty returned, and I was convinced that the ticket was an order on Kwan Luey for money. Was Big Sam trying to bribe me, or was he attempting thus to provide for the expenses of the Chinese girl? Nothing had been said on the delicate point of meeting her charges for food, care and lodging. Possibly he had chosen this eccentric way of putting the money in my hands.
There was, however, another question more perplexing than that of money. What were the relations between Bolton and Big Sam? Here for the second time I had evidence that they were in secret alliance. The business of supplying coolie workmen was not of such disrepute that it had to be conducted in disguise. Could it be possible that Big Sam was one of Bolton's agents in the plot to overthrow Wharton Kendrick? And if so, was the Chinese girl brought under the Kendrick roof as a part of Peter Bolton's tortuous policy?
As there was no answer to my questions to be had by studying the ticket Big Sam had given me, I thrust it into my pocket and followed General Wilson into Peter Bolton's private den.
There are certain natures whose approach brings an access of mental or physical repulsion. A man may conform to all the sanitary laws, and yet appeal quite as objectionably to the inner spirit as the Eskimo reeking of spoiled blubber appeals to the physical senses.
To approach Peter Bolton was like putting your hand on the spider to which current metaphor compared him. If you liked spiders, he was doubtless a pleasant enough companion. But as for me, I share the popular prejudice against the arachnidæ, and found myself at once in mental antagonism to Mr. Bolton.
General Wilson had plunged into a brisk but one-sided conversation with his curmudgeon. The first words I had missed in the encounter with Big Sam, but as I crossed the threshold he was holding forth in his most coruscating style.
"By George, Bolton, I wish I had time to show you how it ought to be done, but I've got to think of getting back to New York toward the end of the month. Why, this is my vacation time, and I'm carrying on five trades that count up to three or four million dollars. Of course, I couldn't afford to touch 'em under ordinary circumstances, but one has to do these little things for one's friends. I took a run down to New York just before I came out here, and we had a little dinner at the club--oh, there were only a dozen of us, or so--but big men all of them. Why, the men around that table could have signed a joint note for three hundred million--and got it discounted, too, if there was a bank big enough to do the business. Young Vanderbilt was there--I suppose we must call him Old Van, now the Commodore is gone--Astor, Belmont, and the rest of that crowd. Jay Gould couldn't come, because he and Vanderbilt don't speak. I was telling them that I was going to make a flying trip out here, when Vanderbilt pipes up, and says, 'General Wilson, you're just the man we want. There are good bargains to be picked up out there, and you must keep your eye out for them.' And the others chimed in and said, 'Yes, you must do some business for us while you are out there.' 'Hold on, gentlemen,' I said; 'I'm going out for a vacation, and I can't burden my mind with business.' But it was no use. The more I protested, the warmer they got over it--insisted that I could get lots more fun out of the trip if I did business than I could if I didn't--said it was like a man going for a walk--if he's just out for exercise it's confounded stupid work, and he gets tired in no time; but put a gun on his shoulder and turn him out to look for deer and he will tramp all day and think he's had no end of fun. Well, at last I had to give in. What can you do when you've got three hundred million against you? So I said, 'Gentlemen, let's have everything regular. Get up a syndicate--make it a blind pool--and I'll guarantee to bring you back something worth while.' Well, they jumped at that idea like cats at a mouse, and in ten minutes they had made up a five-million-dollar pool. So I expect to put in at least three million before I leave. I closed one big trade with Governor Stanford last night, and I've got three or four others on the books now."
Peter Bolton's gaunt sallow face, with its projecting jaw, lost none of its sourness, but a sardonic smile tightened his thin lips and drew down the corners of his mouth.
"Well," he drawled in his cracked nasal tone, "you can have that tract of mine for six hundred thousand."
"Couldn't think of it," said General Wilson bruskly. "Two hundred thousand would be a fancy figure for it. I don't want it, anyhow, unless I can get that piece of Kendrick's just above it."
Bolton's thin lips tightened once more, and a slight flush passed over his sallow face.
"Kendrick's place?" he said, the sarcastic drawl quickening a little. "I shouldn't think you'd want to show yourself again in New York if you'd 'a' bought that swamp. What'd he ask you for it?"
"A stiff figure, a stiff figure," said General Wilson with a wave of his arm, as if Bolton's question were a missile that he was fending aside. "It's swampy enough, and needs any quantity of leveeing and draining. But it's rich land. I've been over it all. I don't say I'll buy it, but I might, if I can get it at a reasonable price."
"You can get My Land at My Price," drawled the sarcastic voice of Peter Bolton, audibly putting capital letters to his words and making the possessive pronoun appear very large. "I said six hundred thousand, didn't I? Well, it's had a raise since then. It's seven hundred thousand now. I shouldn't be surprised if it went to eight hundred thousand before you got out."
General Wilson appeared to regard this as an excellent piece of pleasantry.
"It looks to a man up a tree," he said good-humoredly, "as though you didn't want me to buy Kendrick's land."
Bolton's lips drew into a sneer.
"I don't know why I should want you to buy Kendrick's land," he said. "You can have My Land at My Price," he repeated, the sneer deepening on his face. "My price is nine hundred thousand now."
"Well," said General Wilson with a chuckle, "I've been in Chicago through some pretty exciting times, and I've had real-estate deals in nearly every part of the country, but I never saw property go up so fast as that piece of yours out in the San Joaquin swamps." Then, changing his tone suddenly, he asked: "Why do you want to stop the trade on Kendrick's tract? I see that you're nobody's fool, and you know as well as I do that we've got to have your place if we take his. Now, what's your game?"
A look of malevolent shrewdness came over Bolton's face, and he pursed up his mouth as though he was afraid his thoughts were going to escape.
"If you would like to know," he drawled at last, "you might ask Kendrick's young man standing over there by the door."
I was startled at this sudden attack. Peter Bolton had to this minute given no sign that he was aware of my existence, and I was filled with wonder to know how he had discovered that I was in Kendrick's employ. There was nothing to do but to put up a bold front on the matter, and I said:
"The only thing I could tell about the trouble is that the Council of Nine has plenty of money and is spending it like water."
A covering of gray ashes appeared to spread over the sallow face of Peter Bolton, and caused General Wilson to spring to his feet with the exclamation:
"Good God, what's the matter?"
Peter Bolton waved him back to his seat, and with an effort gasped out:
"The Council of Nine! What do you mean by that nonsense? I never heard of such damned foolery before!"
"Oh, yes," said I, pressing my advantage. "Waldorf was up here night before last, you remember, and got thirty thousand dollars. I thought you would like to know that your contribution was being spent with a liberal hand."
Peter Bolton's face assumed a gray-green tint, and he cried out:
"I don't know what you're talking about. You've gone crazy--" Then, as if he feared that I would take offense at the words, he fell from the attitude of protest to one of cringing obsequiousness. "No, I don't mean that--I mean that I want you to do some business for me."
The man appeared carried away with fright; his claw-like hands worked convulsively, and a perspiration started on his forehead. I saw in his eyes a foretaste of the terrors of unsuccessful crime, and that as he remembered the purposes that lay behind those rifles in the Council's armory, his conscience conjured up the vision of the police and the hangman stretching forth their hands to seize him.
"Good God, Bolton!" cried General Wilson again. "What have you been doing? You couldn't look more upset if you had murdered your grandmother and Hampden had uncovered the corpse."
"It's nothing--nothing," gasped Bolton, recovering himself with an effort; "just a little joke we have--just a little joke." And he framed his thin lips into the semblance of a ghastly smile.
General Wilson's red face grew redder yet as an angry color swept over it.
"Well, you've got too many jokes to suit me, and a damned queer taste in humor--that's all I've got to say about it. I came to talk business, and you've been wasting my time with your tomfoolery." And with an angry wave of his hand he got to his feet and strode out.
Almost before General Wilson had reached the hall, Bolton had turned eagerly to me.
"Come in and shut the door," he said with a quavering voice. "That gilded ass may stop to listen."
He was silent a minute as I obeyed him, and I surmised that he was turning over in his mind the possible plans by which I might be gagged. And as he motioned me to a seat his calculating eye was taking my measure with all the coolness of a butcher estimating the value of a steer.
"You are a young man," he began with an insinuating drawl.
I admitted the charge, but offered him the consolation to be drawn from the theory that I should probably get over it in time. He paid no attention to my flippant suggestion, but continued in a slow tone of ironic emphasis:
"You are old enough, though, to know that you have got to look out for your own Interests. That's what every Man must do, if he wants to keep in Business." Peter Bolton's sarcastic drawl punctuated his important words with capitals. "If you don't think enough of your Interests to look out for Yourself, nobody is going to look out for them for you."
"If you want to do me a good turn," I said with strategic frankness, "you might tell me what your business is with Big Sam."
He was not to be caught off his guard again. He paid no attention to my words, but continued with more of propitiation in his voice than I had considered possible.
"Now, you're a Man of the World--young as you are--and you have seen something of Business. You have seen the man who has given his best years to making money for the other fellow turned adrift as soon as the other fellow finds somebody who can make more money for him. That's the Gratitude of Business, young man--the Gratitude of Business. I've seen a man who made fifty thousand dollars for his employer in a trade turned out inside of six months because somebody offered to work for twenty-five dollars less a month. That's what you get when you look out for your Employer's interests instead of your Own." The depth of sarcasm in Peter Bolton's drawl was portentous.
I did not know whether to be amused or indignant at this attempt to teach me the folly of loyalty and the essential respectability of treachery. So I gave a nod of comprehension, which he took for encouragement, and he continued:
"Now, I'm a plain-speaking old fellow, and I won't talk nonsense to you about Gratitude or Friendship. I won't say a word about the things I'll do for you Some day. I'll just talk Cash in Hand to you, with no back bills to be paid with promises on either side."
"Very good," I replied, "but I'd rather you would answer the questions about Big Sam and the Council of Nine."
Bolton gave me a cunning look.
"I want you to take up some private business for me," he said slowly, "and I'll give you ten thousand dollars for sixty days' work."
"What work?" I asked sharply, my indignation getting the better of my amusement.
"Confidential work," said Bolton deliberately. "I want a representative in Kendrick's office, and you're the best man I know for the job."
My repressed indignation broke forth at this brazen proffer of a bribe, and I jumped to my feet and shook my fist in Peter Bolton's face.
"You old scoundrel!" I cried. "If you were a younger man, I'd thump the breath out of you!"
"You are a bigger Fool than I thought," said Bolton in his most sarcastic voice. And he threw back his head and opened his mouth in silent laughter.
"I give you warning," I continued, "that I shall tell Colonel Kendrick of your offer."
The unabashed Bolton drew down the corners of his mouth in a sarcastic smile, and his sarcastic voice followed me as I opened the door:
"If Kendrick offers you eleven thousand, come back and I'll see if I can do better."
CHAPTER X
A COUNCIL OF WAR
"No," said Laura Kendrick, in her piquant voice, "uncle isn't at home, but he sent word he would be back at nine o'clock. You look very important, but I'm sure it's something that will wait an hour."
"It is a bit important," I replied, thinking grimly of the thirty-thousand-dollar contribution to the Council of Nine, the thousand rifles, and Peter Bolton's self-revelations in his attempt to bribe me. "I've been hunting Mr. Kendrick all day about it. But it has kept without spoiling for eight or nine hours already, so another sixty minutes will do no harm."
"Well, then," said Miss Kendrick, "I won't keep you standing in the hall. I came out when your name was announced, to let you know that Mr. Baldwin is in the library, and Mercy will be down in a few minutes. So you can have your choice of waiting in there, or you can find an easy chair in uncle's den."
"Oh, if that is the choice, give me the library, by all means."
"You may think your tone is complimentary, but I'll tell you I don't consider it so. He's a very agreeable man, and you had better be very civil, or I shall banish you to the den, after all." Then she changed her half-bantering tone to one of earnestness, and halted me at the library door. "What is it you are about?" she asked. "Is uncle in danger?"
"I believe not," I replied.
She laid her hand upon my arm.
"You would not answer so unless he were. What is it that you fear?" And her brown eyes looked anxiously up into mine.
"There is no danger that I can learn of that threatens your uncle. I believe he is perfectly safe."
She threw my arm aside with a gesture of irritation.
"Do you think I have not the right to know?" she exclaimed. "Do you think I could be of no use? Do you think I ought to be shut up in the dark, wondering what is going to happen?"
"You are worrying yourself without need," I said. "You can hold me responsible for his safety."
"It is the trouble with old Mr. Bolton, is it not?" she asked after a pause.
I balanced the advantages of a lie and the truth.
"Yes, it is on that business that I am engaged."
"And you will tell me nothing about it." There was a trace of bitterness in her tone, and giving a shrug of resentful resignation she opened the door to the library and preceded me into the room.
Mr. Baldwin sat there wrapped in his superiority to all created things, and gave me a stiff nod of recognition, but melted into something resembling geniality as Laura Kendrick took a chair by his side. Mercy Fillmore had come in at the other door while we had been carrying on our skirmish in the hall, and now made room for me on the sofa beside her.
"I'm glad you came," she said. "I wanted to ask you something." The soothing quality of Mercy Fillmore's voice and manner was doubly welcome after the rasping that Laura Kendrick had managed to inflict upon my spirit as the just punishment for the crime of incommunicativeness.
I responded to Miss Fillmore's greeting with fitting words.
"Well," she continued, "what I wanted to ask you was this: Do you think there is any danger to this house from having the Chinese girl here?"
"Why, no; I hardly think so. Big Sam assured me that there was not." Then, after a moment's hesitation, I added: "While I don't doubt Big Sam's good faith in the matter, I have taken the precaution to have the place well guarded. There are four watchmen outside at the present moment--unless I underestimate the attractions of the corner grocery; and the highbinder who tries to get in will have the warmest five minutes of his life."
"How kind of you to attend to that!" said Miss Fillmore. "But I wasn't thinking of the highbinders. What set me to asking you was a meeting I had with Mr. Parks to-day."
"Parks!" I exclaimed in surprise. "You know him?"
"Oh, yes, indeed. We were children together, and I count him as a good friend." A blush that tinted her cheeks suggested that the friendship was a little nearer than she would have me believe.
"Then I wish you would get him to cut his hair! I think it would save him from getting hanged."
"How absurd you are!"
"Merely an application of the theory of clothes--Sartor Resartus, and all that, you know. Dress to a part, and you get the spirit of it."
"You are joking," said Miss Fillmore, with the seriousness of one to whom the sense of humor is beyond understanding.
"Not at all," I returned. "If Parks came down to the normal supply of hair he might get rid of some abnormal ideas that are going to bring him into trouble."
Miss Fillmore looked at me doubtfully a moment, and again expressed her opinion that I was joking. Then she put aside the subject as one beyond her comprehension, and continued:
"But never mind. I met him this afternoon when I was out taking the air, and he said that there was going to be trouble in the city, and asked if we kept any Chinese servants."
"Yes? And if you did--?"
"Well, we don't, and I told him so, and he said if we did we had better turn them away in a hurry. Then he went on to tell me that there was going to be an uprising of the people, and that the unemployed might make an attack on the Chinese and those who hire them. Now, do you think that the presence of our poor little Moon Ying will bring the mob here?"
"Mr. Parks could answer that question much better than I."
"I asked him, and he said 'Oh, no'--that his people were not warring on women or the sick; but I feared he was too hopeful."
"I do not think there is the slightest danger," I replied. "If Mr. Parks' friends get to be too obstreperous, the police will make short work of them. But I don't think they are enterprising enough to get so far away from Tar Flat." I spoke with a confidence that was more assumed than real.
"Oh, indeed they are. There was some one here to-day about the matter. Laura, my dear," she said, raising her voice and earning a frown from Mr. Baldwin by breaking into his monopoly; "Laura, my dear, didn't you say there was some one here to-day inquiring about Chinese?"
"Indeed there was," said Miss Laura, emphasizing the statement with an indignant nod. "He was a very disagreeable man, and insisted on seeing the lady of the house, so at last I went to the door. I found him horribly impolite. I had to tell him three times that I was the lady before he would believe me."
"What sort of looking man was he? And what did he say?" I asked.
"Oh, he was well-looking enough--a man of good size, about thirty, with a black mustache and an insolent way. What he said was that he hoped we didn't employ any Chinese. I just told him that I was much obliged to him for his interest in us, but as I couldn't see that it concerned him I would ask to be excused. Then he got saucy, and said that if I wouldn't listen to him I would have to listen to a mob--that wasn't what he called it, but that's what he meant. He said he was a delegate from some anti-coolie club or convention, or something of the sort, with a hundred thousand members, and they were going to see that the Chinese were discharged and white men put in their places."
"That's rather a large contract," said Mr. Baldwin. "I hope you shut the door in his face. I should like to have given employment to one white man to boot him off the place."
"Well," continued Miss Kendrick, "I was too mad to tell him that uncle is so opposed to the Chinese that he's never allowed one about the house. I just said that we hadn't any Chinese now, but if he would come around in about two weeks we would try to accommodate him."
"A soft answer," I said. "I hope it turned away wrath."
"Well, he got saucier, and I told him to go, and he went. I'm afraid I wasn't polite. But I'm as sorry as sorry can be now, for he told me he had been out of work for six months because the Chinese had taken the factory that had employed him, and I'm sure it is a very unpleasant thing to be turned out of the place where you make your living." Miss Kendrick's voice had softened with her last words, and the light of womanly sympathy shone in her eyes.
"You are right, my dear," said Miss Fillmore. "It has been a hard year for many. We have been appealed to by scores of men who have been turned out of one place and could find no other."
"Serves 'em right," said Mr. Baldwin shortly. "If they can't keep their jobs, they ought to lose them. This talk about Chinese competition is absolute nonsense. A competent man can find work any time. The anti-Chinese howl comes from the fellows who don't want to work, and wouldn't work if there wasn't a Chinaman within eight thousand miles."
"I hope you are right," said Miss Kendrick. "It isn't good for the spirits to think of men going hungry when they are willing to labor."
"You needn't distress yourself, Miss Laura," said Mr. Baldwin, with an air of contempt for the difficulties of the unemployed. "You couldn't drive those fellows to work with a Gatling gun. This talk about Chinese taking away their jobs is just an excuse for them to get out on street corners and howl about their wrongs, in the hope that somebody like you and Mercy will set up a soup-house for them."
"I am afraid you haven't looked into the matter," said Miss Fillmore. "Our Helping Hand Society has found much real distress from want of employment. You don't agree with Mr. Baldwin, do you, Mr. Hampden?"
"Certainly not," said I, with some irritation at Mr. Baldwin's scornful airs. "The anti-Chinese cry may have been taken up by those who had rather talk than work, but there is plenty of foundation for the statement that the Chinese are driving white men out of employment."
"I have found nothing of the sort in my experience," said Mr. Baldwin contemptuously.
"Well, your experience is not that of men in business," I returned warmly. "You will find that class for class the Chinaman can run the white man out of any line he enters. The Chinese laborer can work and live on less wages than the white laborer; the Chinese merchant can grow wealthy in a market that would throw the white merchant into bankruptcy, and the Chinese manufacturer thrives under conditions that drive his white competitor to the wall."
"What do you mean by talking that way, Hampden?" cried Mr. Baldwin with irritation. "You know well enough that you're not serious. It's impossible."
A sharp answer was on the tip of my tongue when Miss Kendrick interposed.
"That will do for a very stupid debate," she said. "You can put the rest of it in the papers. I think I hear the doctor, and I want Mr. Hampden to come and see him." And with a peremptory wave of her hand she rose, and I followed her out into the hall. As the door closed she dropped her commanding manner. "Do you know it is ten o'clock?" she said, "and uncle hasn't come in yet." Her tone was troubled.
"Is it anything unusual?" I asked.
"I suppose you think it's a case of nerves," she said, "and maybe it is. But I shouldn't worry if he hadn't sent word to me that he would be here by nine. I'm afraid something has happened, and I want you to see about it."
"Have you any idea where he went?"
"He spoke of going to Mr. Coleman's."
"William T. Coleman's?"
"Yes."
"Well, that will be a good place to start a search, then." And I secured my hat.
"It's good of you to go," said Miss Kendrick.
"Am I forgiven?" I asked, taking the small hand that lay so temptingly near my own, and bending over it.
"There, that will do," she said, snatching her hand away and retreating in some confusion. "Your pardon for being an obstinate man-creature is signed, and you'd better not imperil it by any Louis Quatorze manners. And I'm sure you'd better not waste any more time."
Once out of the house my fears for Wharton Kendrick became more lively, and I hastened to the Coleman residence.
"Take my card to Colonel Kendrick," I said briskly to the man who opened the door.
He looked at it doubtfully a moment. But my assured air, and the "Attorney at law" that announced my business in unmistakable type impressed him, and he called a fellow servant to his side, gave him the card with a word of instruction, and advised me to be seated.
After a few minutes of waiting I wondered whether I would not have done better, after all, to ask speech with the master of the house, and I was just on the point of requesting the Cerberus to take my name to Mr. Coleman, when my dubitations were cut short by the opening of a door, and a sudden outburst of voices, which softened to an indistinguishable murmur as it closed again, and Colonel Kendrick came walking down the hall.
"Ah, Hampden," he said gravely, stroking his flame-tinted whiskers, "I'm not sure whether I am glad to see you or not. What has happened? Anything?"
"Well, I'm in no doubt about being glad to see you," I returned. "I've been suspecting you were knocked on the head."
"Pooh!" said Wharton Kendrick. "I'm in no danger. Don't worry about me. What you want to do is to find out what the other fellow is doing. Can you tell me that?"
"Certainly. He left his office at six o'clock, went directly to his house, and hasn't stirred out of it since."
"Very good. Now, I believe you had something to tell me." And his eye wandered uneasily to the door from behind which the confused murmur swelled with tantalizing indistinctness.
"Yes: I have been hunting you all day to tell you that I received word this morning that the Council of Nine had bought a thousand rifles."
This bit of news brought no answering sign of surprise on the face of my client.
"Well," he said thoughtfully, "I wasn't much behind you in getting the information. I heard about it this afternoon on the street."
"On the street!" I exclaimed. "It was told to me as a profound secret." It seemed an altogether perplexing thing that the information that Clark had considered it death to reveal should be the talk of commercial San Francisco.
"Well," said Wharton Kendrick with a smile, "if it's a secret it's one that needs a good deal of help in keeping it. I heard it from a dozen different directions."
"There will be some astonished men in the Council if they hear of this report," I said.
A grim smile wrinkled Wharton Kendrick's ruddy cheeks, and drove for a moment the thoughtful look from his eyes. He put his hands in his pockets and threw himself back in his chair.
"Well," he said, "you can expect them to have an attack of heart disease at the breakfast-table then. It will all be in the papers in the morning. But, to tell the truth, I got the impression that the nine members of the Council and all their friends were giving their afternoon to circulating the report."
I was a little piqued at the staleness of my information.
"Since you are so well-posted about the purchase of the rifles--" I began.
"The alleged purchase of the rifles," interrupted Wharton Kendrick.
"The purchase of the rifles," I repeated. "I suppose I don't need to tell you where the money came from to pay for them."
"Oh," said Wharton Kendrick carelessly, "it doesn't take much money to get up a report."
"Well, it took thirty thousand dollars for this one."
"Pooh, Hampden, you've been dreaming. That crowd couldn't raise thirty thousand cents."
"Not alone, I grant you. But you will admit that it might be done with the assistance of a generous-hearted millionaire who has been convinced of the loftiness of their aims."
"What the devil are you driving at, Hampden? Talk plain United States." Wharton Kendrick sat bolt upright, and looked at me sternly, with the light of half-comprehension in his eyes.
"In plain language, then, Peter Bolton paid thirty thousand dollars into the treasury of the Council of Nine night before last, and the rifles have been bought with his money."
Kendrick jumped to his feet. His ruddy face went pale, and then turned ruddier than ever.
"Bolton!" he cried. "How do you know that?"
I gave Clark's account of the matter, recalled Bolton's dealings with the Council, and clenched the conclusion with the corroborative testimony of my interview with Bolton in his office. Wharton Kendrick settled back in his chair and received my tale in a brown study. Before I had done, he interrupted me.
"I see his game. This puts a different face on the matter. Come in here." And rising suddenly he seized me by the arm and marched me into the room from which he had come, with the authoritative air of a policeman haling a burglar to prison.
The room to which I was introduced in this ignominious fashion was of moderate size, and the score or so of men who were gathered there filled it comfortably. I had noted in the company several of the leading financial men of the city, when Wharton Kendrick brought me to a halt before a tall, broad-shouldered, full-faced man, with a long gray mustache, kindly gray eyes, and a calm, resourceful expression.
"Coleman, let me introduce my attorney, Mr. Hampden,"--I became suddenly grateful that he had presented me in this character--"son of Dick Hampden, you remember. He brings news that puts a different face on affairs."
I had seen William T. Coleman on the street, and had known something of his romantic history. His leadership of the forces of order in the city, when the criminals of 1851 and 1856 left no remedy to honest men but that of revolution, had impressed my imagination, and I was prepared to feel the glow of admiration that warmed my spirit as he shook my hand with a kindly word. No one could approach the man without receiving the impression of quiet force; yet it was, after all, difficult to realize that this kindly merchant had developed the highest qualities of leadership at two critical periods in the history of the city and state, had headed a successful revolution against a criminal administration of the law, and had, after showing gifts that in another day would have made him a Cromwell or a Simon de Montfort, quietly surrendered his powers when his work was done, and settled contentedly back to the prosaic business of buying and selling goods. I felt proud to be in his presence.
"What is this important information?" asked Coleman, his gray eyes searching my face with penetrating glance.
"Chiefly," said Wharton Kendrick, "that we are mistaken in supposing that the story of the purchase of arms is false."
"There is no doubt of its truth, gentlemen," I said. "The conspirators have received a large sum of money, and have put a good part of it into guns. They have, on my information, about one thousand rifles."
This assurance produced a visible effect on the company.
"Where did they get this money?" asked the doubting voice of a man who had been introduced as Mr. Partridge.
"That's not the important point," said Wharton Kendrick, striking in smoothly. "The main thing is to know what they are going to do with it."
I understood from this hint that I was to keep the name of Peter Bolton out of the discussion.
"I have a little special information on that point," I said. And I described the multiform purposes of the Council of Nine as they had appeared from my investigations.
"How do you know all this?" came from several of the assembled magnates.
Wharton Kendrick took the reply out of my mouth.
"He has practically direct communication with the conspirators," he said. "I think we shall all agree that it is best not to mention names."
"Well, this certainly makes it a horse of another color," said Partridge. "In the light of Mr. Hampden's information I withdraw my objections to the plan proposed by Mr. Kendrick."
Wharton Kendrick heaved a scarcely perceptible sigh, and whispered to me, "That settles it; Partridge represents the Golconda Bank, and the rest will follow his lead."
"That is right," said another. "Let us take no chances." And with a few similar expressions the company appeared to have come to a unanimous agreement.
"Then," said Wharton Kendrick, turning to Partridge, "I'll put you down for--"
"For five hundred thousand," replied Partridge.
"Make it a million," said Kendrick. "Nelson here is going to stand responsible for five hundred thousand, and your people should stand for more."
"Well, if you think the emergency calls for it, you can count on a million," said Partridge.
One after another the men named the amounts for which they would stand responsible, and Wharton Kendrick jotted down the figures in his memorandum-book.
"Please make out your checks, gentlemen," he said at last. "Here is ten million dollars pledged to the committee."
"That will be enough," said Coleman with decision. "I think that our arrangements cover every point where there can be a break in the markets."
"Unless it's M. & N., and the bank we mentioned," said Nelson.
"Oh, yes," said Kendrick; "our arrangements cover them, too. We've got to back them up till this storm is over. They are bound to go some day, but if they go now there will be a smash all along the line. Partridge will see to getting the best collateral they have, and we'll feed them just enough to keep their doors open."
"They will draw pretty heavily on the pool if disorder actually starts," said another.
"Oh," said Partridge, "we have a very comfortable reserve, and it isn't likely that there will be an actual outbreak."
"Well, we have prepared for every emergency," said a stout and sleepy-looking man in the corner; "and as we're likely to have a hard day of it to-morrow, I move we get home and to bed. It's three minutes of midnight, now."
The suggestion appeared to be approved, for everybody rose with the breaking-up atmosphere that ends a gathering.
"One moment," said Coleman, raising his hand. "There is one thing we have neglected to discuss. It is not impossible that the constituted authorities will prove unable to handle the disorderly elements. In case of need, how many of you gentlemen are ready to give your services to the city to preserve order?"
There was a silence for a moment. Then one said:
"Pshaw, Coleman! This isn't fifty-six! We're twenty years older than we were then, and the police and the militia can handle those fellows if they make any trouble."
"I believe," said Coleman with deliberate emphasis, "that we are standing on the crust of a volcano. We should be prepared to give our money and our personal services to the public safety if the need comes."
"There's no danger," growled the sleepy man, "so what's the use of worrying about it? Let's go home."
"Oh," said Kendrick, "we'll all stand in if there's trouble, of course."
"We'll leave Coleman on guard," said another with a facetious nod. "We'll all turn out when he rings the bell."
In the bustle of guests departing, Coleman took me by the arm and led me to a corner.
"Do you know where these guns are stored?" he asked.
I balanced my obligations to Clark against the obvious fact that the publicity given to the armament had relieved him from chance of suspicion, and replied:
"I understand that they were stored near the headquarters of the Council--Blasius' saloon--known to the police as the House of Blazes."
"I think they should belong to the police," said Coleman dryly. "I dare say Chief Ellis has heard of them, but I shall send word to him before I go to bed."
In a moment more Kendrick called me, and we bade good night to our host.
As we reached the Kendrick house the magnate roused himself from a brown study and said:
"The curmudgeon is a rather amusing cuss, Hampden, if you know how to take him. I advise you to cultivate his acquaintance."
"Do you mean--" I began.
"I mean," said Kendrick sharply, "that the closer you get to a man the more you find out about what he intends to do. If he wants to pay for the pleasure of your society it might be a pity to deny him the privilege."