Part 1 (2/2)
The hearts of the committeemen fell. Was this meeting, on which they had so greatly depended, destined to prove a failure, after all?
Jake Kasker, the owner of ”Kasker's Clothing Emporium,” finally made his way to the platform and mounting the steps faced his townspeople.
There was a little murmur of surprise and a sudden tension. The man had been distrusted in Dorfield, of late.
”You all know what I think about this war,” said Kasker in a loud voice and with a slight German accent. ”I don't approve of it, whatever anyone says, and I think we were wrong to get into it, anyhow.”
A storm of hisses and cries of ”Shame!” saluted him, but he waited stolidly for the demonstration to subside. Then he continued:
”But, whatever I think about the war, I want to tell you that this flag that now waves over my head is as much _my_ flag as it is _yours,_ for I'm an American citizen. Where that flag goes, Jake Kasker will follow, no matter what fools carry the standard. If they don't think I'm too old to go to France, I'll pack up and go to-morrow. That's Jake Kasker--with a Dutch name but a Yankee heart. Some of you down there got Yankee names an' hearts that make the Kaiser laugh. I wouldn't trade with you! Now, hear this: I ain't rich; you know that; but I'll take two thousand dollars' worth of Liberty Bonds.”
Some one laughed, jeeringly. Another shouted:
”Make it three thousand, Jake!”
”I will,” said Kasker; ”and, if there ain't enough of you war-crazy, yellow-hearted patriots in Dorfield to take what we got to take, then I'll make it five thousand. But if I have to do that--an' I can't afford it, but I'll do it!--it's me, Jake Kasker, that'll cry 'Shame!'
and hiss like a goose whenever you slackers pa.s.s my door.”
There was more laughter, a few angry shouts, and a movement toward the platform. The German signed the paper Mr. Jaswell placed before him and withdrew. Soon there was a line extending from the banker's table to the crowd below, and the signatures for bonds were slowly but steadily secured.
Colonel Hathaway faced the German clothier, who stood a few paces back, a cynical grin upon his features.
”Thank you, Kasker,” said the old gentleman, in a cold voice. ”You have really helped us, although you should have omitted those traitorous words. They poisoned a deed you might have been proud of.”
”We don't agree, Colonel,” replied Kasker, with a shrug. ”When I talk, I'm honest; I say what I think.” He turned and walked away and Colonel Hathaway looked after him with an expression of dislike.
”I wonder why he did it?” whispered Mary Louise, who had overheard the exchange of words and marked Kasker's dogged opposition.
”He bought the bonds as a matter of business,” replied Laura Hilton.
”It's a safe investment, and Kasker knows it. Besides that, he may have an idea it would disarm suspicion.”
”Also,” added Alora Jones, ”he took advantage of the opportunity to slam the war. That was worth something to a man like Kasker.”
CHAPTER II MARY LOUISE TAKES COMMAND
When Mary Louise entered the library the next morning she found her grandfather seated at the table, his head resting on his extended arms in an att.i.tude of great depression. The young girl was startled.
”What is it, Gran'pa Jim?” she asked, going to his side and laying a hand lovingly on his shoulder.
The old gentleman looked up with a face drawn and gray.
”I'm nervous and restless, my dear,” he said; ”that's all. Go to breakfast, Mary Louise; I--I'll join you presently.”
She sat down on the arm of his chair.
”Haven't you slept well, Gran'pa?” she asked anxiously, and then her eyes wandered through the open door to the next room and rested on the undisturbed bed. ”Why, you haven't slept at all, dear!” she cried in distress. ”What is wrong? Are you ill?”
<script>