Part 25 (1/2)
Norman found it necessary for the executive council to sit continuously for the adjustment of disputes and the settlement of new problems which arose at every step of progress in the new moral world.
He had condemned the sins of the old world of capitalism with c.o.c.ksure certainty. Now that he had been made a supreme judge with power to adjust the rights and wrongs of his fellow man, he was appalled at the magnitude of the task of subst.i.tuting an ideal for the reign of natural law under which civilization had been slowly evolved.
There were two men in the Brotherhood whom he grew early to hate with cordial, thorough, murderous hatred--Roland Adair, the Bard of Ramcat, who always denounced every decision as unjust, and a tall, hooked-nosed, stoop-shouldered, scholarly looking man named Diggs, who invariably sat near him and at every conceivable opportunity asked questions. These questions were always put in an innocent, friendly way, but when Diggs looked at him through his gleaming spectacles Norman always got the impression that an imp of the devil had suddenly popped up through the floor.
The first day after the general a.s.signment of work Diggs rose before the council, adjusted his gla.s.ses, and drew a piece of paper from his pocket. Norman knew before he spoke that the doc.u.ment bristled with questions. Diggs's gla.s.ses had always fascinated him, but to-day they seemed of unusual thickness and enormous size, and their concave surfaces seemed to flash light from a thousand angles.
Diggs adjusted them on his hook-nose with deliberation and glanced carefully over his notes before speaking.
Norman turned to Barbara with a sigh.
She pressed his hand in silent sympathy.
”Don't worry!” she whispered.
Norman's breath quickened as he answered the pressure of the soft, warm fingers but he managed to move his chair and break the effects of her spell without revealing to her the effort it cost. Each hour of their a.s.sociation he felt the cords he dare not try to break tighten about his heart. He determined each day to put the thought from him.
Over and over again with grim resolution he repeated his vow:
”I'll keep a clear head. I've got to decide this issue on its merits.
I owe it to my generous friends who made it possible.”
He had avoided her for the last few days. She guessed the cause intuitively and knew that he was fighting with desperation to escape the net she was slowly weaving about him. She began to watch the struggle now with a curious fascination in which cruelty and tenderness were equally mixed. The idea of surrendering her own heart had never once entered her pretty head.
Her life had been lived in a strange war with human society. Man had always appeared to her imagination as an enemy. She had never trusted one--least of all Wolf, the big, impa.s.sive animal who had dominated the life of her foster-mother.
With deliberate and cruel art she had set out to master the heart of the man who sat by her side. The task was accepted as part of her work. She had enlisted as a soldier in the Cause. She had received the orders from headquarters. When the deed was done she would turn to a greater task. She had expected to be bored by his idiotic love making.
Now her curiosity was beginning to be piqued by his silence. She began vaguely to wonder each moment what kind of pictures she was making in his mind. Her brown eyes searched the depths of his soul in a dumb way that sent the blood rus.h.i.+ng to Norman's heart, but each time he had eluded her.
He sat in moody silence now, giving no response to her words of cheer.
She roused him from his reverie with a plaintive protest.
”What's the matter? Have I, too, offended?”
He turned quickly and crushed her hand in his strong grasp:
”For heaven's sake don't _you_ get into the habit of asking me questions! How could you offend? Your face is my lighthouse set on the cliffs, calm, serene, joyful. I couldn't get through a day without you.”
A smiling answer was just trembling on her lips when Diggs began to speak.
”Now for the human interrogation point,” Barbara laughed.
”Comrade Judges,” Diggs began, with guileless good humour, ”while we are shaping the form of our ideal State for its permanent organization I wish to submit some questions which may help us in our search for truth.”
”Questions,” Norman whispered, ”which any fool can ask, but the angels of G.o.d can't answer.”
”But we will answer them!” she flashed, with defiant courage.
”We agree,” Diggs went on, ”that society must be governed in some way.
There must be rulers, but how shall we choose our rulers, and with what powers shall we clothe them? We can begin to see that the head of our social system must at times exercise the full powers of the State.