Part 40 (1/2)
”The thing you know is bad enough.”
”Oh, that! That is nothing... now. It doesn't matter.”
Lieutenant Beauchamp emerged from a saloon and bore down upon them.
”Mrs. Van Tyle has sent me to bring you to breakfast, Miss Frome.
Mornin', Mr. Farnum.”
”And I'm ready for it, We've been round the deck ever so many times.
Haven't we, Mr. Farnum?”
She nodded lightly to Jeff and walked away with the Englishman. The suns.h.i.+ne of her warm vitality was like quicksilver in Farnum's veins.
What a gallant spirit, at once delicate and daring, dwelt in that vivid slender form! A s.n.a.t.c.h of Chesterton came to his mind:
Her face was like an open word When brave men speak and choose, The very colors of her coat Were better than good news.
”It is the hour of man: new purposes, Broad shouldered, press against the world's slow gate; And voices from the vast eternities Publish the soul's austere apostolate.
Man bursts the chains that his own hands have made; Hurls down the blind, fierce G.o.ds that in blind years He fas.h.i.+oned, and a power upon them laid To bruise his heart and shake his soul with fears.”
--Edwin Markham.
CHAPTER 18
THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY ARE GIVEN AN ILl.u.s.tRATION OF A ROORBACK
Part 1
Rawson sat in the rotunda of the Pacific Hotel in desultory conversation with Captain Chunn, Hardy and Rogers. He brought his clenched hand down on the padded leather arm of the big chair.
”They'll jam it through to-morrow. That's what they'll do. James K.
Farnum's been playing mighty pretty politics and he has got the votes to deliver the goods.”
Hardy nodded as he knocked the ash from his cigar. ”Now that it's all over we can see James K.'s trail easily enough. He meant to defeat the initiative and referendum amendment, and he meant to do it without losing his popularity. He's done it too. Jeff's disappearance made it certain our bill wouldn't go through. James jumps in with a hurrah and pa.s.ses one that isn't worth the powder to blow it up. But he's going to claim it as a great victory for the people--and if I know that young man he'll get away with his bluff. Yet it's certain as taxes that he's been working for Joe Powers all the time.”
”I wouldn't put it past him to have engineered some deal to get rid of his cousin,” Chunn suggested.
Rawson shook his head. ”No. Not respectable enough for James. And he's not fool enough to run his head into a trap. But I'd bet my head Big Tim gave him a tip it was to be pulled off. J. K. had to know. Otherwise he wouldn't have been in a position to play the game for them. But he didn't know any details--just a suggestion. Enough to wise him without making him responsible.”
”And the play he's been making in the papers. Offering a reward for information about Jeff, insisting publicly that he has absolute confidence in his cousin's integrity while he shakes his head in private. If you want my opinion, that young man is a whited sepulchre. I never did believe in him.”
Rogers turned to Captain Chunn with an incredulous smile. ”But you still believe in Jeff. Frankly, it looks to me like a double sell out.”
The old Confederate's eyes gleamed. ”Sir, I've known that boy since he was a little tad. He's never told me a lie. He's square as they make them.”
”I used to believe in his cousin James, too,” Rogers commented.
”Oh, James! He's another proposition.” Rawson's voice was sour with disgust. ”He just naturally looked to see where his bread was b.u.t.tered.