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diff --git a/old/sstrg10.txt b/old/sstrg10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e698356 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sstrg10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5230 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strength of the Strong, by Jack London +(#12 in our series by Jack London) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Strength of the Strong + +Author: Jack London + +Release Date: October, 1997 [EBook #1075] +[This file was first posted on October 17, 1997] +[Most recently updated: June 28, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG *** + + + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +The Strength of the Strong + + + + +Contents: + +The Strength of the Strong +South of the Slot +The Unparalleled Invasion +The Enemy of All the World +The Dream of Debs +The Sea-Farmer +Samuel + + + +THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG + + + +"Parables don't lie, but liars will parable."--Lip-King. + + +Old Long-Beard paused in his narrative, licked his greasy fingers, +and wiped them on his naked sides where his one piece of ragged +bearskin failed to cover him. Crouched around him, on their hams, +were three young men, his grandsons, Deer-Runner, Yellow-Head, and +Afraid-of-the-Dark. In appearance they were much the same. Skins +of wild animals partly covered them. They were lean and meagre of +build, narrow-hipped and crooked-legged, and at the same time deep- +chested, with heavy arms and enormous hands. There was much hair +on their chests and shoulders, and on the outsides of their arms +and legs. Their heads were matted with uncut hair, long locks of +which often strayed before their eyes, beady and black and +glittering like the eyes of birds. They were narrow between the +eyes and broad between the cheeks, while their lower jaws were +projecting and massive. + +It was a night of clear starlight, and below them, stretching away +remotely, lay range on range of forest-covered hills. In the +distance the heavens were red from the glow of a volcano. At their +backs yawned the black mouth of a cave, out of which, from time to +time, blew draughty gusts of wind. Immediately in front of them +blazed a fire. At one side, partly devoured, lay the carcass of a +bear, with about it, at a respectable distance, several large dogs, +shaggy and wolf-like. Beside each man lay his bow and arrows and a +huge club. In the cave-mouth a number of rude spears leaned +against the rock. + +"So that was how we moved from the cave to the tree," old Long- +Beard spoke up. + +They laughed boisterously, like big children, at recollection of a +previous story his words called up. Long-Beard laughed, too, the +five-inch bodkin of bone, thrust midway through the cartilage of +his nose, leaping and dancing and adding to his ferocious +appearance. He did not exactly say the words recorded, but he made +animal-like sounds with his mouth that meant the same thing. + +"And that is the first I remember of the Sea Valley," Long-Beard +went on. "We were a very foolish crowd. We did not know the +secret of strength. For, behold, each family lived by itself, and +took care of itself. There were thirty families, but we got no +strength from one another. We were in fear of each other all the +time. No one ever paid visits. In the top of our tree we built a +grass house, and on the platform outside was a pile of rocks, which +were for the heads of any that might chance to try to visit us. +Also, we had our spears and arrows. We never walked under the +trees of the other families, either. My brother did, once, under +old Boo-oogh's tree, and he got his head broken and that was the +end of him. + +"Old Boo-oogh was very strong. It was said he could pull a grown +man's head right off. I never heard of him doing it, because no +man would give him a chance. Father wouldn't. One day, when +father was down on the beach, Boo-oogh took after mother. She +couldn't run fast, for the day before she had got her leg clawed by +a bear when she was up on the mountain gathering berries. So Boo- +oogh caught her and carried her up into his tree. Father never got +her back. He was afraid. Old Boo-oogh made faces at him. + +"But father did not mind. Strong-Arm was another strong man. He +was one of the best fishermen. But one day, climbing after sea- +gull eggs, he had a fall from the cliff. He was never strong after +that. He coughed a great deal, and his shoulders drew near to each +other. So father took Strong-Arm's wife. When he came around and +coughed under our tree, father laughed at him and threw rocks at +him. It was our way in those days. We did not know how to add +strength together and become strong." + +"Would a brother take a brother's wife?" Deer-Runner demanded. + +"Yes, if he had gone to live in another tree by himself." + +"But we do not do such things now," Afraid-of-the-Dark objected. + +"It is because I have taught your fathers better." Long-Beard +thrust his hairy paw into the bear meat and drew out a handful of +suet, which he sucked with a meditative air. Again he wiped his +hands on his naked sides and went on. "What I am telling you +happened in the long ago, before we knew any better." + +"You must have been fools not to know better," was Deer-Runner's +comment, Yellow-Head grunting approval. + +"So we were, but we became bigger fools, as you shall see. Still, +we did learn better, and this was the way of it. We Fish-Eaters +had not learned to add our strength until our strength was the +strength of all of us. But the Meat-Eaters, who lived across the +divide in the Big Valley, stood together, hunted together, fished +together, and fought together. One day they came into our valley. +Each family of us got into its own cave and tree. There were only +ten Meat-Eaters, but they fought together, and we fought, each +family by itself." + +Long-Beard counted long and perplexedly on his fingers. + +"There were sixty men of us," was what he managed to say with +fingers and lips combined. "And we were very strong, only we did +not know it. So we watched the ten men attack Boo-oogh's tree. He +made a good fight, but he had no chance. We looked on. When some +of the Meat-Eaters tried to climb the tree, Boo-oogh had to show +himself in order to drop stones on their heads, whereupon the other +Meat-Eaters, who were waiting for that very thing, shot him full of +arrows. And that was the end of Boo-oogh. + +"Next, the Meat-Eaters got One-Eye and his family in his cave. +They built a fire in the mouth and smoked him out, like we smoked +out the bear there to-day. Then they went after Six-Fingers, up +his tree, and, while they were killing him and his grown son, the +rest of us ran away. They caught some of our women, and killed two +old men who could not run fast and several children. The women +they carried away with them to the Big Valley. + +"After that the rest of us crept back, and, somehow, perhaps +because we were in fear and felt the need for one another, we +talked the thing over. It was our first council--our first real +council. And in that council we formed our first tribe. For we +had learned the lesson. Of the ten Meat-Eaters, each man had had +the strength of ten, for the ten had fought as one man. They had +added their strength together. But of the thirty families and the +sixty men of us, we had had the strength of but one man, for each +had fought alone. + +"It was a great talk we had, and it was hard talk, for we did not +have the words then as now with which to talk. The Bug made some +of the words long afterward, and so did others of us make words +from time to time. But in the end we agreed to add our strength +together and to be as one man when the Meat-Eaters came over the +divide to steal our women. And that was the tribe. + +"We set two men on the divide, one for the day and one for the +night, to watch if the Meat-Eaters came. These were the eyes of +the tribe. Then, also, day and night, there were to be ten men +awake with their clubs and spears and arrows in their hands, ready +to fight. Before, when a man went after fish, or clams, or gull- +eggs, he carried his weapons with him, and half the time he was +getting food and half the time watching for fear some other man +would get him. Now that was all changed. The men went out without +their weapons and spent all their time getting food. Likewise, +when the women went into the mountains after roots and berries, +five of the ten men went with them to guard them. While all the +time, day and night, the eyes of the tribe watched from the top of +the divide. + +"But troubles came. As usual, it was about the women. Men without +wives wanted other men's wives, and there was much fighting between +men, and now and again one got his head smashed or a spear through +his body. While one of the watchers was on top of the divide, +another man stole his wife, and he came down to fight. Then the +other watcher was in fear that some one would take his wife, and he +came down likewise. Also, there was trouble among the ten men who +carried always their weapons, and they fought five against five, +till some ran away down the coast and the others ran after them. + +"So it was that the tribe was left without eyes or guards. We had +not the strength of sixty. We had no strength at all. So we held +a council and made our first laws. I was but a cub at the time, +but I remember. We said that, in order to be strong, we must not +fight one another, and we made a law that when a man killed another +him would the tribe kill. We made another law that whoso stole +another man's wife him would the tribe kill. We said that whatever +man had too great strength, and by that strength hurt his brothers +in the tribe, him would we kill that his strength might hurt no +more. For, if we let his strength hurt, the brothers would become +afraid and the tribe would fall apart, and we would be as weak as +when the Meat-Eaters first came upon us and killed Boo-oogh. + +"Knuckle-Bone was a strong man, a very strong man, and he knew not +law. He knew only his own strength, and in the fullness thereof he +went forth and took the wife of Three-Clams. Three-Clams tried to +fight, but Knuckle-Bone clubbed out his brains. Yet had Knuckle- +Bone forgotten that all the men of us had added our strength to +keep the law among us, and him we killed, at the foot of his tree, +and hung his body on a branch as a warning that the law was +stronger than any man. For we were the law, all of us, and no man +was greater than the law. + +"Then there were other troubles, for know, O Deer-Runner, and +Yellow-Head, and Afraid-of-the-Dark, that it is not easy to make a +tribe. There were many things, little things, that it was a great +trouble to call all the men together to have a council about. We +were having councils morning, noon, and night, and in the middle of +the night. We could find little time to go out and get food, +because of the councils, for there was always some little thing to +be settled, such as naming two new watchers to take the place of +the old ones on the hill, or naming how much food should fall to +the share of the men who kept their weapons always in their hands +and got no food for themselves. + +"We stood in need of a chief man to do these things, who would be +the voice of the council, and who would account to the council for +the things he did. So we named Fith-Fith the chief man. He was a +strong man, too, and very cunning, and when he was angry he made +noises just like that, fith-fith, like a wild-cat. + +"The ten men who guarded the tribe were set to work making a wall +of stones across the narrow part of the valley. The women and +large children helped, as did other men, until the wall was strong. +After that, all the families came down out of their caves and trees +and built grass houses behind the shelter of the wall. These +houses were large and much better than the caves and trees, and +everybody had a better time of it because the men had added their +strength together and become a tribe. Because of the wall and the +guards and the watchers, there was more time to hunt and fish and +pick roots and berries; there was more food, and better food, and +no one went hungry. And Three-Legs, so named because his legs had +been smashed when a boy and who walked with a stick--Three-Legs got +the seed of the wild corn and planted it in the ground in the +valley near his house. Also, he tried planting fat roots and other +things he found in the mountain valleys. + +"Because of the safety in the Sea Valley, which was because of the +wall and the watchers and the guards, and because there was food in +plenty for all without having to fight for it, many families came +in from the coast valleys on both sides and from the high back +mountains where they had lived more like wild animals than men. +And it was not long before the Sea Valley filled up, and in it were +countless families. But, before this happened, the land, which had +been free to all and belonged to all, was divided up. Three-Legs +began it when he planted corn. But most of us did not care about +the land. We thought the marking of the boundaries with fences of +stone was a foolishness. We had plenty to eat, and what more did +we want? I remember that my father and I built stone fences for +Three-Legs and were given corn in return. + +"So only a few got all the land, and Three-Legs got most of it. +Also, others that had taken land gave it to the few that held on, +being paid in return with corn and fat roots, and bear-skins, and +fishes which the farmers got from the fishermen in exchange for +corn. And, the first thing we knew, all the land was gone. + +"It was about this time that Fith-Fith died and Dog-Tooth, his son, +was made chief. He demanded to be made chief anyway, because his +father had been chief before him. Also, he looked upon himself as +a greater chief than his father. He was a good chief at first, and +worked hard, so that the council had less and less to do. Then +arose a new voice in the Sea Valley. It was Twisted-Lip. We had +never thought much of him, until he began to talk with the spirits +of the dead. Later we called him Big-Fat, because he ate over- +much, and did no work, and grew round and large. One day Big-Fat +told us that the secrets of the dead were his, and that he was the +voice of God. He became great friends with Dog-Tooth, who +commanded that we should build Big-Fat a grass house. And Big-Fat +put taboos all around this house and kept God inside. + +"More and more Dog-Tooth became greater than the council, and when +the council grumbled and said it would name a new chief, Big-Fat +spoke with the voice of God and said no. Also, Three-Legs and the +others who held the land stood behind Dog-Tooth. Moreover, the +strongest man in the council was Sea-Lion, and him the land-owners +gave land to secretly, along with many bearskins and baskets of +corn. So Sea-Lion said that Big-Fat's voice was truly the voice of +God and must be obeyed. And soon afterward Sea-Lion was named the +voice of Dog-Tooth and did most of his talking for him. + +"Then there was Little-Belly, a little man, so thin in the middle +that he looked as if he had never had enough to eat. Inside the +mouth of the river, after the sand-bar had combed the strength of +the breakers, he built a big fish-trap. No man had ever seen or +dreamed a fish-trap before. He worked weeks on it, with his son +and his wife, while the rest of us laughed at their labours. But, +when it was done, the first day he caught more fish in it than +could the whole tribe in a week, whereat there was great rejoicing. +There was only one other place in the river for a fish-trap, but, +when my father and I and a dozen other men started to make a very +large trap, the guards came from the big grass-house we had built +for Dog-Tooth. And the guards poked us with their spears and told +us begone, because Little-Belly was going to build a trap there +himself on the word of Sea-Lion, who was the voice of Dog-Tooth. + +"There was much grumbling, and my father called a council. But, +when he rose to speak, him the Sea-Lion thrust through the throat +with a spear and he died. And Dog-Tooth and Little-Belly, and +Three-Legs and all that held land said it was good. And Big-Fat +said it was the will of God. And after that all men were afraid to +stand up in the council, and there was no more council. + +"Another man, Pig-Jaw, began to keep goats. He had heard about it +as among the Meat-Eaters, and it was not long before he had many +flocks. Other men, who had no land and no fish-traps, and who else +would have gone hungry, were glad to work for Pig-Jaw, caring for +his goats, guarding them from wild dogs and tigers, and driving +them to the feeding pastures in the mountains. In return, Pig-Jaw +gave them goat-meat to eat and goat-skins to wear, and sometimes +they traded the goat-meat for fish and corn and fat roots. + +"It was this time that money came to be. Sea-Lion was the man who +first thought of it, and he talked it over with Dog-Tooth and Big- +Fat. You see, these three were the ones that got a share of +everything in the Sea Valley. One basket out of every three of +corn was theirs, one fish out of every three, one goat out of every +three. In return, they fed the guards and the watchers, and kept +the rest for themselves. Sometimes, when a big haul of fish was +made they did not know what to do with all their share. So Sea- +Lion set the women to making money out of shell--little round +pieces, with a hole in each one, and all made smooth and fine. +These were strung on strings, and the strings were called money. + +"Each string was of the value of thirty fish, or forty fish, but +the women, who made a string a day, were given two fish each. The +fish came out of the shares of Dog-Tooth, Big-Fat, and Sea-Lion, +which they three did not eat. So all the money belonged to them. +Then they told Three-Legs and the other land-owners that they would +take their share of corn and roots in money, Little-Belly that they +would take their share of fish in money, Pig-Jaw that they would +take their share of goats and cheese in money. Thus, a man who had +nothing, worked for one who had, and was paid in money. With this +money he bought corn, and fish, and meat, and cheese. And Three- +Legs and all owners of things paid Dog-Tooth and Sea-Lion and Big- +Fat their share in money. And they paid the guards and watchers in +money, and the guards and watchers bought their food with the +money. And, because money was cheap, Dog-Tooth made many more men +into guards. And, because money was cheap to make, a number of men +began to make money out of shell themselves. But the guards stuck +spears in them and shot them full of arrows, because they were +trying to break up the tribe. It was bad to break up the tribe, +for then the Meat-Eaters would come over the divide and kill them +all. + +"Big-Fat was the voice of God, but he took Broken-Rib and made him +into a priest, so that he became the voice of Big-Fat and did most +of his talking for him. And both had other men to be servants to +them. So, also, did Little-Belly and Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw have +other men to lie in the sun about their grass houses and carry +messages for them and give commands. And more and more were men +taken away from work, so that those that were left worked harder +than ever before. It seemed that men desired to do no work and +strove to seek out other ways whereby men should work for them. +Crooked-Eyes found such a way. He made the first fire-brew out of +corn. And thereafter he worked no more, for he talked secretly +with Dog-Tooth and Big-Fat and the other masters, and it was agreed +that he should be the only one to make fire-brew. But Crooked-Eyes +did no work himself. Men made the brew for him, and he paid them +in money. Then he sold the fire-brew for money, and all men +bought. And many strings of money did he give Dog-Tooth and Sea- +Lion and all of them. + +"Big-Fat and Broken-Rib stood by Dog-Tooth when he took his second +wife, and his third wife. They said Dog-Tooth was different from +other men and second only to God that Big-Fat kept in his taboo +house, and Dog-Tooth said so, too, and wanted to know who were they +to grumble about how many wives he took. Dog-Tooth had a big canoe +made, and, many more men he took from work, who did nothing and lay +in the sun, save only when Dog-Tooth went in the canoe, when they +paddled for him. And he made Tiger-Face head man over all the +guards, so that Tiger-Face became his right arm, and when he did +not like a man Tiger-Face killed that man for him. And Tiger-Face, +also, made another man to be his right arm, and to give commands, +and to kill for him. + +"But this was the strange thing: as the days went by we who were +left worked harder and harder, and yet did we get less and less to +eat." + +"But what of the goats and the corn and the fat roots and the fish- +trap?" spoke up Afraid-of-the-Dark, "what of all this? Was there +not more food to be gained by man's work?" + +"It is so," Long-Beard agreed. "Three men on the fish-trap got +more fish than the whole tribe before there was a fish-trap. But +have I not said we were fools? The more food we were able to get, +the less food did we have to eat." + +"But was it not plain that the many men who did not work ate it all +up?" Yellow-Head demanded. + +Long-Beard nodded his head sadly. + +"Dog-Tooth's dogs were stuffed with meat, and the men who lay in +the sun and did no work were rolling in fat, and, at the same time, +there were little children crying themselves to sleep with hunger +biting them with every wail." + +Deer-Runner was spurred by the recital of famine to tear out a +chunk of bear-meat and broil it on a stick over the coals. This he +devoured with smacking lips, while Long-Beard went on: + +"When we grumbled Big-Fat arose, and with the voice of God said +that God had chosen the wise men to own the land and the goats and +the fish-trap, and the fire-brew, and that without these wise men +we would all be animals, as in the days when we lived in trees. + +"And there arose one who became a singer of songs for the king. +Him they called the Bug, because he was small and ungainly of face +and limb and excelled not in work or deed. He loved the fattest +marrow bones, the choicest fish, the milk warm from the goats, the +first corn that was ripe, and the snug place by the fire. And +thus, becoming singer of songs to the king, he found a way to do +nothing and be fat. And when the people grumbled more and more, +and some threw stones at the king's grass house, the Bug sang a +song of how good it was to be a Fish-Eater. In his song he told +that the Fish-Eaters were the chosen of God and the finest men God +had made. He sang of the Meat-Eaters as pigs and crows, and sang +how fine and good it was for the Fish-Eaters to fight and die doing +God's work, which was the killing of Meat-Eaters. The words of his +song were like fire in us, and we clamoured to be led against the +Meat-Eaters. And we forgot that we were hungry, and why we had +grumbled, and were glad to be led by Tiger-Face over the divide, +where we killed many Meat-Eaters and were content. + +"But things were no better in the Sea Valley. The only way to get +food was to work for Three-Legs or Little-Belly or Pig-Jaw; for +there was no land that a man might plant with corn for himself. +And often there were more men than Three-Legs and the others had +work for. So these men went hungry, and so did their wives and +children and their old mothers. Tiger-Face said they could become +guards if they wanted to, and many of them did, and thereafter they +did no work except to poke spears in the men who did work and who +grumbled at feeding so many idlers. + +"And when we grumbled, ever the Bug sang new songs. He said that +Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw and the rest were strong men, and that that +was why they had so much. He said that we should be glad to have +strong men with us, else would we perish of our own worthlessness +and the Meat-Eaters. Therefore, we should be glad to let such +strong men have all they could lay hands on. And Big-Fat and Pig- +Jaw and Tiger-Face and all the rest said it was true. + +"'All right,' said Long-Fang, 'then will I, too, be a strong man.' +And he got himself corn, and began to make fire-brew and sell it +for strings of money. And, when Crooked-Eyes complained, Long-Fang +said that he was himself a strong man, and that if Crooked-Eyes +made any more noise he would bash his brains out for him. Whereat +Crooked-Eyes was afraid and went and talked with Three-Legs and +Pig-Jaw. And all three went and talked to Dog-Tooth. And Dog- +Tooth spoke to Sea-Lion, and Sea-Lion sent a runner with a message +to Tiger-Face. And Tiger-Face sent his guards, who burned Long- +Fang's house along with the fire-brew he had made. Also, they +killed him and all his family. And Big-Fat said it was good, and +the Bug sang another song about how good it was to observe the law, +and what a fine land the Sea Valley was, and how every man who +loved the Sea Valley should go forth and kill the bad Meat-Eaters. +And again his song was as fire to us, and we forgot to grumble. + +"It was very strange. When Little-Belly caught too many fish, so +that it took a great many to sell for a little money, he threw many +of the fish back into the sea, so that more money would be paid for +what was left. And Three-Legs often let many large fields lie idle +so as to get more money for his corn. And the women, making so +much money out of shell that much money was needed to buy with, +Dog-Tooth stopped the making of money. And the women had no work, +so they took the places of the men. I worked on the fish-trap, +getting a string of money every five days. But my sister now did +my work, getting a string of money for every ten days. The women +worked cheaper, and there was less food, and Tiger-Face said we +should become guards. Only I could not become a guard because I +was lame of one leg and Tiger-Face would not have me. And there +were many like me. We were broken men and only fit to beg for work +or to take care of the babies while the women worked." + +Yellow-Head, too, was made hungry by the recital and broiled a +piece of bear-meat on the coals. + +"But why didn't you rise up, all of you, and kill Three-Legs and +Pig-Jaw and Big-Fat and the rest and get enough to eat?" Afraid-in- +the-Dark demanded. + +"Because we could not understand," Long-Beard answered. "There was +too much to think about, and, also, there were the guards sticking +spears into us, and Big-Fat talking about God, and the Bug singing +new songs. And when any man did think right, and said so, Tiger- +Face and the guards got him, and he was tied out to the rocks at +low tide so that the rising waters drowned him. + +"It was a strange thing--the money. It was like the Bug's songs. +It seemed all right, but it wasn't, and we were slow to understand. +Dog-Tooth began to gather the money in. He put it in a big pile, +in a grass house, with guards to watch it day and night. And the +more money he piled in the house the dearer money became, so that a +man worked a longer time for a string of money than before. Then, +too, there was always talk of war with the Meat-Eaters, and Dog- +Tooth and Tiger-Face filled many houses with corn, and dried fish, +and smoked goat-meat, and cheese. And with the food, piled there +in mountains the people had not enough to eat. But what did it +matter? Whenever the people grumbled too loudly the Bug sang a new +song, and Big-Fat said it was God's word that we should kill Meat- +Eaters, and Tiger-Face led us over the divide to kill and be +killed. I was not good enough to be a guard and lie fat in the +sun, but, when we made war, Tiger-Face was glad to take me along. +And when we had eaten, all the food stored in the houses we stopped +fighting and went back to work to pile up more food." + +"Then were you all crazy," commented Deer-Runner. + +"Then were we indeed all crazy," Long-Beard agreed. "It was +strange, all of it. There was Split-Nose. He said everything was +wrong. He said it was true that we grew strong by adding our +strength together. And he said that, when we first formed the +tribe, it was right that the men whose strength hurt the tribe +should be shorn of their strength--men who bashed their brothers' +heads and stole their brothers' wives. And now, he said, the tribe +was not getting stronger, but was getting weaker, because there +were men with another kind of strength that were hurting the tribe- +-men who had the strength of the land, like Three-Legs; who had the +strength of the fish-trap, like Little-Belly; who had the strength +of all the goat-meat, like Pig-Jaw. The thing to do, Split-Nose +said, was to shear these men of their evil strength; to make them +go to work, all of them, and to let no man eat who did not work. + +"And the Bug sang another song about men like Split-Nose, who +wanted to go back, and live in trees. + +"Yet Split-Nose said no; that he did not want to go back, but +ahead; that they grew strong only as they added their strength +together; and that, if the Fish-Eaters would add their strength to +the Meat-Eaters, there would be no more fighting and no more +watchers and no more guards, and that, with all men working, there +would be so much food that each man would have to work not more +than two hours a day. + +"Then the Bug sang again, and he sang that Split-Nose was lazy, and +he sang also the 'Song of the Bees.' It was a strange song, and +those who listened were made mad, as from the drinking of strong +fire-brew. The song was of a swarm of bees, and of a robber wasp +who had come in to live with the bees and who was stealing all +their honey. The wasp was lazy and told them there was no need to +work; also, he told them to make friends with the bears, who were +not honey-stealers but only very good friends. And the Bug sang in +crooked words, so that those who listened knew that the swarm was +the Sea Valley tribe, that the bears were the Meat-Eaters, and that +the lazy wasp was Split-Nose. And when the Bug sang that the bees +listened to the wasp till the swarm was near to perishing, the +people growled and snarled, and when the Bug sang that at last the +good bees arose and stung the wasp to death, the people picked up +stones from the ground and stoned Split-Nose to death till there +was naught to be seen of him but the heap of stones they had flung +on top of him. And there were many poor people who worked long and +hard and had not enough to eat that helped throw the stones on +Split-Nose. + +"And, after the death of Split-Nose, there was but one other man +that dared rise up and speak his mind, and that man was Hair-Face. +'Where is the strength of the strong?' he asked. 'We are the +strong, all of us, and we are stronger than Dog-Tooth and Tiger- +Face and Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw and all the rest who do nothing and +eat much and weaken us by the hurt of their strength which is bad +strength. Men who are slaves are not strong. If the man who first +found the virtue and use of fire had used his strength we would +have been his slaves, as we are the slaves to-day of Little-Belly, +who found the virtue and use of the fish-trap; and of the men who +found the virtue and use of the land, and the goats, and the fire- +brew. Before, we lived in trees, my brothers, and no man was safe. +But we fight no more with one another. We have added our strength +together. Then let us fight no more with the Meat-Eaters. Let us +add our strength and their strength together. Then will we be +indeed strong. And then we will go out together, the Fish-Eaters +and the Meat-Eaters, and we will kill the tigers and the lions and +the wolves and the wild dogs, and we will pasture our goats on all +the hill-sides and plant our corn and fat roots in all the high +mountain valleys. In that day we will be so strong that all the +wild animals will flee before us and perish. And nothing will +withstand us, for the strength of each man will be the strength of +all men in the world.' + +"So said Hair-Face, and they killed him, because, they said, he was +a wild man and wanted to go back and live in a tree. It was very +strange. Whenever a man arose and wanted to go forward all those +that stood still said he went backward and should be killed. And +the poor people helped stone him, and were fools. We were all +fools, except those who were fat and did no work. The fools were +called wise, and the wise were stoned. Men who worked did not get +enough to eat, and the men who did not work ate too much. + +"And the tribe went on losing strength. The children were weak and +sickly. And, because we ate not enough, strange sicknesses came +among us and we died like flies. And then the Meat-Eaters came +upon us. We had followed Tiger-Face too often over the divide and +killed them. And now they came to repay in blood. We were too +weak and sick to man the big wall. And they killed us, all of us, +except some of the women, which they took away with them. The Bug +and I escaped, and I hid in the wildest places, and became a hunter +of meat and went hungry no more. I stole a wife from the Meat- +Eaters, and went to live in the caves of the high mountains where +they could not find me. And we had three sons, and each son stole +a wife from the Meat-Eaters. And the rest you know, for are you +not the sons of my sons?" + +"But the Bug?" queried Deer-Runner. "What became of him?" + +"He went to live with the Meat-Eaters and to be a singer of songs +to the king. He is an old man now, but he sings the same old +songs; and, when a man rises up to go forward, he sings that that +man is walking backward to live in a tree." + +Long-Beard dipped into the bear-carcass and sucked with toothless +gums at a fist of suet. + +"Some day," he said, wiping his hands on his sides, "all the fools +will be dead and then all live men will go forward. The strength +of the strong will be theirs, and they will add their strength +together, so that, of all the men in the world, not one will fight +with another. There will be no guards nor watchers on the walls. +And all the hunting animals will be killed, and, as Hair-Face said, +all the hill-sides will be pastured with goats and all the high +mountain valleys will be planted with corn and fat roots. And all +men will be brothers, and no man will lie idle in the sun and be +fed by his fellows. And all that will come to pass in the time +when the fools are dead, and when there will be no more singers to +stand still and sing the 'Song of the Bees.' Bees are not men." + + + +SOUTH OF THE SLOT + + + +Old San Francisco, which is the San Francisco of only the other +day, the day before the Earthquake, was divided midway by the Slot. +The Slot was an iron crack that ran along the centre of Market +Street, and from the Slot arose the burr of the ceaseless, endless +cable that was hitched at will to the cars it dragged up and down. +In truth, there were two slots, but in the quick grammar of the +West time was saved by calling them, and much more that they stood +for, "The Slot." North of the Slot were the theatres, hotels, and +shopping district, the banks and the staid, respectable business +houses. South of the Slot were the factories, slums, laundries, +machine-shops, boiler works, and the abodes of the working class. + +The Slot was the metaphor that expressed the class cleavage of +Society, and no man crossed this metaphor, back and forth, more +successfully than Freddie Drummond. He made a practice of living +in both worlds, and in both worlds he lived signally well. Freddie +Drummond was a professor in the Sociology Department of the +University of California, and it was as a professor of sociology +that he first crossed over the Slot, lived for six mouths in the +great labour-ghetto, and wrote The Unskilled Labourer--a book that +was hailed everywhere as an able contribution to the literature of +progress, and as a splendid reply to the literature of discontent. +Politically and economically it was nothing if not orthodox. +Presidents of great railway systems bought whole editions of it to +give to their employees. The Manufacturers' Association alone +distributed fifty thousand copies of it. In a way, it was almost +as immoral as the far-famed and notorious Message to Garcia, while +in its pernicious preachment of thrift and content it ran Mr. Wiggs +of the Cabbage Patch a close second. + +At first, Freddie Drummond found it monstrously difficult to get +along among the working people. He was not used to their ways, and +they certainly were not used to his. They were suspicious. He had +no antecedents. He could talk of no previous jobs. His hands were +soft. His extraordinary politeness was ominous. His first idea of +the role he would play was that of a free and independent American +who chose to work with his hands and no explanations given. But it +wouldn't do, as he quickly discovered. At the beginning they +accepted him, very provisionally, as a freak. A little later, as +he began to know his way about better, he insensibly drifted into +the role that would work--namely, he was a man who had seen better +days, very much better days, but who was down on his luck, though, +to be sure, only temporarily. + +He learned many things, and generalized much and often erroneously, +all of which can be found in the pages of The Unskilled Labourer. +He saved himself, however, after the sane and conservative manner +of his kind, by labelling his generalizations as "tentative." One +of his first experiences was in the great Wilmax Cannery, where he +was put on piece-work making small packing cases. A box factory +supplied the parts, and all Freddie Drummond had to do was to fit +the parts into a form and drive in the wire nails with a light +hammer. + +It was not skilled labour, but it was piece-work. The ordinary +labourers in the cannery got a dollar and a half per day. Freddie +Drummond found the other men on the same job with him jogging along +and earning a dollar and seventy-five cents a day. By the third +day he was able to earn the same. But he was ambitious. He did +not care to jog along and, being unusually able and fit, on the +fourth day earned two dollars. + +The next day, having keyed himself up to an exhausting high- +tension, he earned two dollars and a half. His fellow workers +favoured him with scowls and black looks, and made remarks, +slangily witty and which he did not understand, about sucking up to +the boss and pace-making and holding her down, when the rains set +in. He was astonished at their malingering on piece-work, +generalized about the inherent laziness of the unskilled labourer, +and proceeded next day to hammer out three dollars' worth of boxes. + +And that night, coming out of the cannery, he was interviewed by +his fellow workmen, who were very angry and incoherently slangy. +He failed to comprehend the motive behind their action. The action +itself was strenuous. When he refused to ease down his pace and +bleated about freedom of contract, independent Americanism, and the +dignity of toil, they proceeded to spoil his pace-making ability. +It was a fierce battle, for Drummond was a large man and an +athlete, but the crowd finally jumped on his ribs, walked on his +face, and stamped on his fingers, so that it was only after lying +in bed for a week that he was able to get up and look for another +job. All of which is duly narrated in that first book of his, in +the chapter entitled "The Tyranny of Labour." + +A little later, in another department of the Wilmax Cannery, +lumping as a fruit-distributor among the women, he essayed to carry +two boxes of fruit at a time, and was promptly reproached by the +other fruit-lumpers. It was palpable malingering; but he was +there, he decided, not to change conditions, but to observe. So he +lumped one box thereafter, and so well did he study the art of +shirking that he wrote a special chapter on it, with the last +several paragraphs devoted to tentative generalizations. + +In those six months he worked at many jobs and developed into a +very good imitation of a genuine worker. He was a natural +linguist, and he kept notebooks, making a scientific study of the +workers' slang or argot, until he could talk quite intelligibly. +This language also enabled him more intimately to follow their +mental processes, and thereby to gather much data for a projected +chapter in some future book which he planned to entitle Synthesis +of Working-Class Psychology. + +Before he arose to the surface from that first plunge into the +underworld he discovered that he was a good actor and demonstrated +the plasticity of his nature. He was himself astonished at his own +fluidity. Once having mastered the language and conquered numerous +fastidious qualms, he found that he could flow into any nook of +working-class life and fit it so snugly as to feel comfortably at +home. As he said, in the preface to his second book, The Toiler, +he endeavoured really to know the working people, and the only +possible way to achieve this was to work beside them, eat their +food, sleep in their beds, be amused with their amusements, think +their thoughts, and feel their feeling. + +He was not a deep thinker. He had no faith in new theories. All +his norms and criteria were conventional. His Thesis on the French +Revolution was noteworthy in college annals, not merely for its +painstaking and voluminous accuracy, but for the fact that it was +the dryest, deadest, most formal, and most orthodox screed ever +written on the subject. He was a very reserved man, and his +natural inhibition was large in quantity and steel-like in quality. +He had but few friends. He was too undemonstrative, too frigid. +He had no vices, nor had any one ever discovered any temptations. +Tobacco he detested, beer he abhorred, and he was never known to +drink anything stronger than an occasional light wine at dinner. + +When a freshman he had been baptized "Ice-Box" by his warmer- +blooded fellows. As a member of the faculty he was known as "Cold- +Storage." He had but one grief, and that was "Freddie." He had +earned it when he played full-back in the 'Varsity eleven, and his +formal soul had never succeeded in living it down. "Freddie" he +would ever be, except officially, and through nightmare vistas he +looked into a future when his world would speak of him as "Old +Freddie." + +For he was very young to be a doctor of sociology, only twenty- +seven, and he looked younger. In appearance and atmosphere he was +a strapping big college man, smooth-faced and easy-mannered, clean +and simple and wholesome, with a known record of being a splendid +athlete and an implied vast possession of cold culture of the +inhibited sort. He never talked shop out of class and committee +rooms, except later on, when his books showered him with +distasteful public notice and he yielded to the extent of reading +occasional papers before certain literary and economic societies. + +He did everything right--too right; and in dress and comportment +was inevitably correct. Not that he was a dandy. Far from it. He +was a college man, in dress and carriage as like as a pea to the +type that of late years is being so generously turned out of our +institutions of higher learning. His handshake was satisfyingly +strong and stiff. His blue eyes were coldly blue and convincingly +sincere. His voice, firm and masculine, clean and crisp of +enunciation, was pleasant to the ear. The one drawback to Freddie +Drummond was his inhibition. He never unbent. In his football +days, the higher the tension of the game, the cooler he grew. He +was noted as a boxer, but he was regarded as an automaton, with the +inhuman precision of a machine judging distance and timing blows, +guarding, blocking, and stalling. He was rarely punished himself, +while he rarely punished an opponent. He was too clever and too +controlled to permit himself to put a pound more weight into a +punch than he intended. With him it was a matter of exercise. It +kept him fit. + +As time went by, Freddie Drummond found himself more frequently +crossing the Slot and losing himself in South of Market. His +summer and winter holidays were spent there, and, whether it was a +week or a week-end, he found the time spent there to be valuable +and enjoyable. And there was so much material to be gathered. His +third book, Mass and Master, became a text-book in the American +universities; and almost before he knew it, he was at work on a +fourth one, The Fallacy of the Inefficient. + +Somewhere in his make-up there was a strange twist or quirk. +Perhaps it was a recoil from his environment and training, or from +the tempered seed of his ancestors, who had been book-men +generation preceding generation; but at any rate, he found +enjoyment in being down in the working-class world. In his own +world he was "Cold-Storage," but down below he was "Big" Bill +Totts, who could drink and smoke, and slang and fight, and be an +all-round favourite. Everybody liked Bill, and more than one +working girl made love to him. At first he had been merely a good +actor, but as time went on, simulation became second nature. He no +longer played a part, and he loved sausages, sausages and bacon, +than which, in his own proper sphere, there was nothing more +loathsome in the way of food. + +From doing the thing for the need's sake, he came to doing the +thing for the thing's sake. He found himself regretting as the +time drew near for him to go back to his lecture-room and his +inhibition. And he often found himself waiting with anticipation +for the dreamy time to pass when he could cross the Slot and cut +loose and play the devil. He was not wicked, but as "Big" Bill +Totts he did a myriad things that Freddie Drummond would never have +been permitted to do. Moreover, Freddie Drummond never would have +wanted to do them. That was the strangest part of his discovery. +Freddie Drummond and Bill Totts were two totally different +creatures. The desires and tastes and impulses of each ran counter +to the other's. Bill Totts could shirk at a job with clear +conscience, while Freddie Drummond condemned shirking as vicious, +criminal, and un-American, and devoted whole chapters to +condemnation of the vice. Freddie Drummond did not care for +dancing, but Bill Totts never missed the nights at the various +dancing clubs, such as The Magnolia, The Western Star, and The +Elite; while he won a massive silver cup, standing thirty inches +high, for being the best-sustained character at the Butchers and +Meat Workers' annual grand masked ball. And Bill Totts liked the +girls and the girls liked him, while Freddie Drummond enjoyed +playing the ascetic in this particular, was open in his opposition +to equal suffrage, and cynically bitter in his secret condemnation +of coeducation. + +Freddie Drummond changed his manners with his dress, and without +effort. When he entered the obscure little room used for his +transformation scenes, he carried himself just a bit too stiffly. +He was too erect, his shoulders were an inch too far back, while +his face was grave, almost harsh, and practically expressionless. +But when he emerged in Bill Totts' clothes he was another creature. +Bill Totts did not slouch, but somehow his whole form limbered up +and became graceful. The very sound of the voice was changed, and +the laugh was loud and hearty, while loose speech and an occasional +oath were as a matter of course on his lips. Also, Bill Totts was +a trifle inclined to late hours, and at times, in saloons, to be +good-naturedly bellicose with other workmen. Then, too, at Sunday +picnics or when coming home from the show, either arm betrayed a +practised familiarity in stealing around girls' waists, while he +displayed a wit keen and delightful in the flirtatious badinage +that was expected of a good fellow in his class. + +So thoroughly was Bill Totts himself, so thoroughly a workman, a +genuine denizen of South of the Slot, that he was as class- +conscious as the average of his kind, and his hatred for a scab +even exceeded that of the average loyal union man. During the +Water Front Strike, Freddie Drummond was somehow able to stand +apart from the unique combination, and, coldly critical, watch Bill +Totts hilariously slug scab longshoremen. For Bill Totts was a +dues-paying member of the Longshoremen Union and had a right to be +indignant with the usurpers of his job. "Big" Bill Totts was so +very big, and so very able, that it was "Big" Bill to the front +when trouble was brewing. From acting outraged feelings, Freddie +Drummond, in the role of his other self, came to experience genuine +outrage, and it was only when he returned to the classic atmosphere +of the university that he was able, sanely and conservatively, to +generalize upon his underworld experiences and put them down on +paper as a trained sociologist should. That Bill Totts lacked the +perspective to raise him above class-consciousness Freddie Drummond +clearly saw. But Bill Totts could not see it. When he saw a scab +taking his job away, he saw red at the same time, and little else +did he see. It was Freddie Drummond, irreproachably clothed and +comported, seated at his study desk or facing his class in +Sociology 17, who saw Bill Totts, and all around Bill Totts, and +all around the whole scab and union-labour problem and its relation +to the economic welfare of the United States in the struggle for +the world market. Bill Totts really wasn't able to see beyond the +next meal and the prize-fight the following night at the Gaiety +Athletic Club. + +It was while gathering material for Women and Work that Freddie +received his first warning of the danger he was in. He was too +successful at living in both worlds. This strange dualism he had +developed was after all very unstable, and, as he sat in his study +and meditated, he saw that it could not endure. It was really a +transition stage, and if he persisted he saw that he would +inevitably have to drop one world or the other. He could not +continue in both. And as he looked at the row of volumes that +graced the upper shelf of his revolving book-case, his volumes, +beginning with his Thesis and ending with Women and Work, he +decided that that was the world he would hold to and stick by. +Bill Totts had served his purpose, but he had become a too +dangerous accomplice. Bill Totts would have to cease. + +Freddie Drummond's fright was due to Mary Condon, President of the +International Glove Workers' Union No. 974. He had seen her, +first, from the spectators' gallery, at the annual convention of +the Northwest Federation of Labour, and he had seen her through +Bill Totts' eyes, and that individual had been most favourably +impressed by her. She was not Freddie Drummond's sort at all. +What if she were a royal-bodied woman, graceful and sinewy as a +panther, with amazing black eyes that could fill with fire or +laughter-love, as the mood might dictate? He detested women with a +too exuberant vitality and a lack of . . . well, of inhibition. +Freddie Drummond accepted the doctrine of evolution because it was +quite universally accepted by college men, and he flatly believed +that man had climbed up the ladder of life out of the weltering +muck and mess of lower and monstrous organic things. But he was a +trifle ashamed of this genealogy, and preferred not to think of it. +Wherefore, probably, he practised his iron inhibition and preached +it to others, and preferred women of his own type, who could shake +free of this bestial and regrettable ancestral line and by +discipline and control emphasize the wideness of the gulf that +separated them from what their dim forbears had been. + +Bill Totts had none of these considerations. He had liked Mary +Condon from the moment his eyes first rested on her in the +convention hall, and he had made it a point, then and there, to +find out who she was. The next time he met her, and quite by +accident, was when he was driving an express waggon for Pat +Morrissey. It was in a lodging-house in Mission Street, where he +had been called to take a trunk into storage. The landlady's +daughter had called him and led him to the little bedroom, the +occupant of which, a glove-maker, had just been removed to +hospital. But Bill did not know this. He stooped, up-ended the +trunk, which was a large one, got it on his shoulder, and struggled +to his feet with his back toward the open door. At that moment he +heard a woman's voice. + +"Belong to the union?" was the question asked. + +"Aw, what's it to you?" he retorted. "Run along now, an' git outa +my way. I wanta turn round." + +The next he know, big as he was, he was whirled half around and +sent reeling backward, the trunk overbalancing him, till he fetched +up with a crash against the wall. He started to swear, but at the +same instant found himself looking into Mary Condon's flashing, +angry eyes. + +"Of course I b'long to the union," he said. "I was only kiddin' +you." + +"Where's your card?" she demanded in businesslike tones. + +"In my pocket. But I can't git it out now. This trunk's too damn +heavy. Come on down to the waggon an' I'll show it to you." + +"Put that trunk down," was the command. + +"What for? I got a card, I'm tellin' you." + +"Put it down, that's all. No scab's going to handle that trunk. +You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you big coward, scabbing on +honest men. Why don't you join the union and be a man?" + +Mary Condon's colour had left her face, and it was apparent that +she was in a rage. + +"To think of a big man like you turning traitor to his class. I +suppose you're aching to join the militia for a chance to shoot +down union drivers the next strike. You may belong to the militia +already, for that matter. You're the sort--" + +"Hold on, now, that's too much!" Bill dropped the trunk to the +floor with a bang, straightened up, and thrust his hand into his +inside coat pocket. "I told you I was only kiddin'. There, look +at that." + +It was a union card properly enough. + +"All right, take it along," Mary Condon said. "And the next time +don't kid." + +Her face relaxed as she noticed the ease with which he got the big +trunk to his shoulder, and her eyes glowed as they glanced over the +graceful massiveness of the man. But Bill did not see that. He +was too busy with the trunk. + +The next time he saw Mary Condon was during the Laundry Strike. +The Laundry Workers, but recently organized, were green at the +business, and had petitioned Mary Condon to engineer the strike. +Freddie Drummond had had an inkling of what was coming, and had +sent Bill Totts to join the union and investigate. Bill's job was +in the wash-room, and the men had been called out first, that +morning, in order to stiffen the courage of the girls; and Bill +chanced to be near the door to the mangle-room when Mary Condon +started to enter. The superintendent, who was both large and +stout, barred her way. He wasn't going to have his girls called +out, and he'd teach her a lesson to mind her own business. And as +Mary tried to squeeze past him he thrust her back with a fat hand +on her shoulder. She glanced around and saw Bill. + +"Here you, Mr. Totts," she called. "Lend a hand. I want to get +in." + +Bill experienced a startle of warm surprise. She had remembered +his name from his union card. The next moment the superintendent +had been plucked from the doorway raving about rights under the +law, and the girls were deserting their machines. During the rest +of that short and successful strike, Bill constituted himself Mary +Condon's henchman and messenger, and when it was over returned to +the University to be Freddie Drummond and to wonder what Bill Totts +could see in such a woman. + +Freddie Drummond was entirely safe, but Bill had fallen in love. +There was no getting away from the fact of it, and it was this fact +that had given Freddie Drummond his warning. Well, he had done his +work, and his adventures could cease. There was no need for him to +cross the Slot again. All but the last three chapters of his +latest, Labour Tactics and Strategy, was finished, and he had +sufficient material on hand adequately to supply those chapters. + +Another conclusion he arrived at, was that in order to sheet-anchor +himself as Freddie Drummond, closer ties and relations in his own +social nook were necessary. It was time that he was married, +anyway, and he was fully aware that if Freddie Drummond didn't get +married, Bill Totts assuredly would, and the complications were too +awful to contemplate. And so, enters Catherine Van Vorst. She was +a college woman herself, and her father, the one wealthy member of +the faculty, was the head of the Philosophy Department as well. It +would be a wise marriage from every standpoint, Freddie Drummond +concluded when the engagement was consummated and announced. In +appearance cold and reserved, aristocratic and wholesomely +conservative, Catherine Van Vorst, though warm in her way, +possessed an inhibition equal to Drummond's. + +All seemed well with him, but Freddie Drummond could not quite +shake off the call of the underworld, the lure of the free and +open, of the unhampered, irresponsible life South of the Slot. As +the time of his marriage approached, he felt that he had indeed +sowed wild oats, and he felt, moreover, what a good thing it would +be if he could have but one wild fling more, play the good fellow +and the wastrel one last time, ere he settled down to grey lecture- +rooms and sober matrimony. And, further to tempt him, the very +last chapter of Labour Tactics and Strategy remained unwritten for +lack of a trifle more of essential data which he had neglected to +gather. + +So Freddie Drummond went down for the last time as Bill Totts, got +his data, and, unfortunately, encountered Mary Condon. Once more +installed in his study, it was not a pleasant thing to look back +upon. It made his warning doubly imperative. Bill Totts had +behaved abominably. Not only had he met Mary Condon at the Central +Labour Council, but he had stopped at a chop-house with her, on the +way home, and treated her to oysters. And before they parted at +her door, his arms had been about her, and he had kissed her on the +lips and kissed her repeatedly. And her last words in his ear, +words uttered softly with a catchy sob in the throat that was +nothing more nor less than a love cry, were "Bill . . . dear, dear +Bill." + +Freddie Drummond shuddered at the recollection. He saw the pit +yawning for him. He was not by nature a polygamist, and he was +appalled at the possibilities of the situation. It would have to +be put an end to, and it would end in one only of two ways: either +he must become wholly Bill Totts and be married to Mary Condon, or +he must remain wholly Freddie Drummond and be married to Catherine +Van Vorst. Otherwise, his conduct would be beneath contempt and +horrible. + +In the several months that followed, San Francisco was torn with +labour strife. The unions and the employers' associations had +locked horns with a determination that looked as if they intended +to settle the matter, one way or the other, for all time. But +Freddie Drummond corrected proofs, lectured classes, and did not +budge. He devoted himself to Catherine Van Vorst, and day by day +found more to respect and admire in her--nay, even to love in her. +The Street Car Strike tempted him, but not so severely as he would +have expected; and the great Meat Strike came on and left him cold. +The ghost of Bill Totts had been successfully laid, and Freddie +Drummond with rejuvenescent zeal tackled a brochure, long-planned, +on the topic of "diminishing returns." + +The wedding was two weeks off, when, one afternoon, in San +Francisco, Catherine Van Vorst picked him up and whisked him away +to see a Boys' Club, recently instituted by the settlement workers +in whom she was interested. It was her brother's machine, but they +were alone with the exception of the chauffeur. At the junction +with Kearny Street, Market and Geary Streets intersect like the +sides of a sharp-angled letter "V." They, in the auto, were coming +down Market with the intention of negotiating the sharp apex and +going up Geary. But they did not know what was coming down Geary, +timed by fate to meet them at the apex. While aware from the +papers that the Meat Strike was on and that it was an exceedingly +bitter one, all thought of it at that moment was farthest from +Freddie Drummond's mind. Was he not seated beside Catherine? And +besides, he was carefully expositing to her his views on settlement +work--views that Bill Totts' adventures had played a part in +formulating. + +Coming down Geary Street were six meat waggons. Beside each scab +driver sat a policeman. Front and rear, and along each side of +this procession, marched a protecting escort of one hundred police. +Behind the police rearguard, at a respectful distance, was an +orderly but vociferous mob, several blocks in length, that +congested the street from sidewalk to sidewalk. The Beef Trust was +making an effort to supply the hotels, and, incidentally, to begin +the breaking of the strike. The St. Francis had already been +supplied, at a cost of many broken windows and broken heads, and +the expedition was marching to the relief of the Palace Hotel. + +All unwitting, Drummond sat beside Catherine, talking settlement +work, as the auto, honking methodically and dodging traffic, swung +in a wide curve to get around the apex. A big coal waggon, loaded +with lump coal and drawn by four huge horses, just debouching from +Kearny Street as though to turn down Market, blocked their way. +The driver of the waggon seemed undecided, and the chauffeur, +running slow but disregarding some shouted warning from the +crossing policemen, swerved the auto to the left, violating the +traffic rules, in order to pass in front of the waggon. + +At that moment Freddie Drummond discontinued his conversation. Nor +did he resume it again, for the situation was developing with the +rapidity of a transformation scene. He heard the roar of the mob +at the rear, and caught a glimpse of the helmeted police and the +lurching meat waggons. At the same moment, laying on his whip, and +standing up to his task, the coal driver rushed horses and waggon +squarely in front of the advancing procession, pulled the horses up +sharply, and put on the big brake. Then he made his lines fast to +the brake-handle and sat down with the air of one who had stopped +to stay. The auto had been brought to a stop, too, by his big +panting leaders which had jammed against it. + +Before the chauffeur could back clear, an old Irishman, driving a +rickety express waggon and lashing his one horse to a gallop, had +locked wheels with the auto. Drummond recognized both horse and +waggon, for he had driven them often himself. The Irishman was Pat +Morrissey. On the other side a brewery waggon was locking with the +coal waggon, and an east-bound Kearny Street car, wildly clanging +its gong, the motorman shouting defiance at the crossing policeman, +was dashing forward to complete the blockade. And waggon after +waggon was locking and blocking and adding to the confusion. The +meat waggons halted. The police were trapped. The roar at the +rear increased as the mob came on to the attack, while the vanguard +of the police charged the obstructing waggons. + +"We're in for it," Drummond remarked coolly to Catherine. + +"Yes," she nodded, with equal coolness. "What savages they are." + +His admiration for her doubled on itself. She was indeed his sort. +He would have been satisfied with her even if she had screamed, and +clung to him, but this--this was magnificent. She sat in that +storm centre as calmly as if it had been no more than a block of +carriages at the opera. + +The police were struggling to clear a passage. The driver of the +coal waggon, a big man in shirt sleeves, lighted a pipe and sat +smoking. He glanced down complacently at a captain of police who +was raving and cursing at him, and his only acknowledgment was a +shrug of the shoulders. From the rear arose the rat-rat-tat of +clubs on heads and a pandemonium of cursing, yelling, and shouting. +A violent accession of noise proclaimed that the mob had broken +through and was dragging a scab from a waggon. The police captain +reinforced from his vanguard, and the mob at the rear was repelled. +Meanwhile, window after window in the high office building on the +right had been opened, and the class-conscious clerks were raining +a shower of office furniture down on the heads of police and scabs. +Waste-baskets, ink-bottles, paper-weights, type-writers--anything +and everything that came to hand was filling the air. + +A policeman, under orders from his captain, clambered to the lofty +seat of the coal waggon to arrest the driver. And the driver, +rising leisurely and peacefully to meet him, suddenly crumpled him +in his arms and threw him down on top of the captain. The driver +was a young giant, and when he climbed on his load and poised a +lump of coal in both hands, a policeman, who was just scaling the +waggon from the side, let go and dropped back to earth. The +captain ordered half-a-dozen of his men to take the waggon. The +teamster, scrambling over the load from side to side, beat them +down with huge lumps of coal. + +The crowd on the sidewalks and the teamsters on the locked waggons +roared encouragement and their own delight. The motorman, smashing +helmets with his controller bar, was beaten into insensibility and +dragged from his platform. The captain of police, beside himself +at the repulse of his men, led the next assault on the coal waggon. +A score of police were swarming up the tall-sided fortress. But +the teamster multiplied himself. At times there were six or eight +policemen rolling on the pavement and under the waggon. Engaged in +repulsing an attack on the rear end of his fortress, the teamster +turned about to see the captain just in the act of stepping on to +the seat from the front end. He was still in the air and in most +unstable equilibrium, when the teamster hurled a thirty-pound lump +of coal. It caught the captain fairly on the chest, and he went +over backward, striking on a wheeler's back, tumbling on to the +ground, and jamming against the rear wheel of the auto. + +Catherine thought he was dead, but he picked himself up and charged +back. She reached out her gloved hand and patted the flank of the +snorting, quivering horse. But Drummond did not notice the action. +He had eyes for nothing save the battle of the coal waggon, while +somewhere in his complicated psychology, one Bill Totts was heaving +and straining in an effort to come to life. Drummond believed in +law and order and the maintenance of the established, but this +riotous savage within him would have none of it. Then, if ever, +did Freddie Drummond call upon his iron inhibition to save him. +But it is written that the house divided against itself must fall. +And Freddie Drummond found that he had divided all the will and +force of him with Bill Totts, and between them the entity that +constituted the pair of them was being wrenched in twain. + +Freddie Drummond sat in the auto, quite composed, alongside +Catherine Van Vorst; but looking out of Freddie Drummond's eyes was +Bill Totts, and somewhere behind those eyes, battling for the +control of their mutual body, were Freddie Drummond the sane and +conservative sociologist, and Bill Totts, the class-conscious and +bellicose union working man. It was Bill Totts, looking out of +those eyes, who saw the inevitable end of the battle on the coal +waggon. He saw a policeman gain the top of the load, a second, and +a third. They lurched clumsily on the loose footing, but their +long riot-clubs were out and swinging. One blow caught the +teamster on the head. A second he dodged, receiving it on the +shoulder. For him the game was plainly up. He dashed in suddenly, +clutched two policemen in his arms, and hurled himself a prisoner +to the pavement, his hold never relaxing on his two captors. + +Catherine Van Vorst was sick and faint at sight of the blood and +brutal fighting. But her qualms were vanquished by the sensational +and most unexpected happening that followed. The man beside her +emitted an unearthly and uncultured yell and rose to his feet. She +saw him spring over the front seat, leap to the broad rump of the +wheeler, and from there gain the waggon. His onslaught was like a +whirlwind. Before the bewildered officer on the load could guess +the errand of this conventionally clad but excited-seeming +gentleman, he was the recipient of a punch that arched him back +through the air to the pavement. A kick in the face led an +ascending policeman to follow his example. A rush of three more +gained the top and locked with Bill Totts in a gigantic clinch, +during which his scalp was opened up by a club, and coat, vest, and +half his starched shirt were torn from him. But the three +policemen were flung far and wide, and Bill Totts, raining down +lumps of coal, held the fort. + +The captain led gallantly to the attack, but was bowled over by a +chunk of coal that burst on his head in black baptism. The need of +the police was to break the blockade in front before the mob could +break in at the rear, and Bill Totts' need was to hold the waggon +till the mob did break through. So the battle of the coal went on. + +The crowd had recognized its champion. "Big" Bill, as usual, had +come to the front, and Catherine Van Vorst was bewildered by the +cries of "Bill! O you Bill!" that arose on every hand. Pat +Morrissey, on his waggon seat, was jumping and screaming in an +ecstasy, "Eat 'em, Bill! Eat 'em! Eat 'em alive!" From the +sidewalk she heard a woman's voice cry out, "Look out, Bill--front +end!" Bill took the warning and with well-directed coal cleared +the front end of the waggon of assailants. Catherine Van Vorst +turned her head and saw on the curb of the sidewalk a woman with +vivid colouring and flashing black eyes who was staring with all +her soul at the man who had been Freddie Drummond a few minutes +before. + +The windows of the office building became vociferous with applause. +A fresh shower of office chairs and filing cabinets descended. The +mob had broken through on one side the line of waggons, and was +advancing, each segregated policeman the centre of a fighting +group. The scabs were torn from their seats, the traces of the +horses cut, and the frightened animals put in flight. Many +policemen crawled under the coal waggon for safety, while the loose +horses, with here and there a policeman on their backs or +struggling at their heads to hold them, surged across the sidewalk +opposite the jam and broke into Market Street. + +Catherine Van Vorst heard the woman's voice calling in warning. +She was back on the curb again, and crying out-- + +"Beat it, Bill! Now's your time! Beat it!" + +The police for the moment had been swept away. Bill Totts leaped +to the pavement and made his way to the woman on the sidewalk. +Catherine Van Vorst saw her throw her arms around him and kiss him +on the lips; and Catherine Van Vorst watched him curiously as he +went on down the sidewalk, one arm around the woman, both talking +and laughing, and he with a volubility and abandon she could never +have dreamed possible. + +The police were back again and clearing the jam while waiting for +reinforcements and new drivers and horses. The mob had done its +work and was scattering, and Catherine Van Vorst, still watching, +could see the man she had known as Freddie Drummond. He towered a +head above the crowd. His arm was still about the woman. And she +in the motor-car, watching, saw the pair cross Market Street, cross +the Slot, and disappear down Third Street into the labour ghetto. + + +In the years that followed no more lectures were given in the +University of California by one Freddie Drummond, and no more books +on economics and the labour question appeared over the name of +Frederick A. Drummond. On the other hand there arose a new labour +leader, William Totts by name. He it was who married Mary Condon, +President of the International Glove Workers' Union No. 974; and he +it was who called the notorious Cooks and Waiters' Strike, which, +before its successful termination, brought out with it scores of +other unions, among which, of the more remotely allied, were the +Chicken Pickers and the Undertakers. + + + +THE UNPARALLELED INVASION + + + +It was in the year 1976 that the trouble between the world and +China reached its culmination. It was because of this that the +celebration of the Second Centennial of American Liberty was +deferred. Many other plans of the nations of the earth were +twisted and tangled and postponed for the same reason. The world +awoke rather abruptly to its danger; but for over seventy years, +unperceived, affairs had been shaping toward this very end. + +The year 1904 logically marks the beginning of the development +that, seventy years later, was to bring consternation to the whole +world. The Japanese-Russian War took place in 1904, and the +historians of the time gravely noted it down that that event marked +the entrance of Japan into the comity of nations. What it really +did mark was the awakening of China. This awakening, long +expected, had finally been given up. The Western nations had tried +to arouse China, and they had failed. Out of their native optimism +and race-egotism they had therefore concluded that the task was +impossible, that China would never awaken. + +What they had failed to take into account was this: that between +them and China was no common psychological speech. Their thought- +processes were radically dissimilar. There was no intimate +vocabulary. The Western mind penetrated the Chinese mind but a +short distance when it found itself in a fathomless maze. The +Chinese mind penetrated the Western mind an equally short distance +when it fetched up against a blank, incomprehensible wall. It was +all a matter of language. There was no way to communicate Western +ideas to the Chinese mind. China remained asleep. The material +achievement and progress of the West was a closed book to her; nor +could the West open the book. Back and deep down on the tie-ribs +of consciousness, in the mind, say, of the English-speaking race, +was a capacity to thrill to short, Saxon words; back and deep down +on the tie-ribs of consciousness of the Chinese mind was a capacity +to thrill to its own hieroglyphics; but the Chinese mind could not +thrill to short, Saxon words; nor could the English-speaking mind +thrill to hieroglyphics. The fabrics of their minds were woven +from totally different stuffs. They were mental aliens. And so it +was that Western material achievement and progress made no dent on +the rounded sleep of China. + +Came Japan and her victory over Russia in 1904. Now the Japanese +race was the freak and paradox among Eastern peoples. In some +strange way Japan was receptive to all the West had to offer. +Japan swiftly assimilated the Western ideas, and digested them, and +so capably applied them that she suddenly burst forth, full- +panoplied, a world-power. There is no explaining this peculiar +openness of Japan to the alien culture of the West. As well might +be explained any biological sport in the animal kingdom. + +Having decisively thrashed the great Russian Empire, Japan promptly +set about dreaming a colossal dream of empire for herself. Korea +she had made into a granary and a colony; treaty privileges and +vulpine diplomacy gave her the monopoly of Manchuria. But Japan +was not satisfied. She turned her eyes upon China. There lay a +vast territory, and in that territory were the hugest deposits in +the world of iron and coal--the backbone of industrial +civilization. Given natural resources, the other great factor in +industry is labour. In that territory was a population of +400,000,000 souls--one quarter of the then total population of the +earth. Furthermore, the Chinese were excellent workers, while +their fatalistic philosophy (or religion) and their stolid nervous +organization constituted them splendid soldiers--if they were +properly managed. Needless to say, Japan was prepared to furnish +that management. + +But best of all, from the standpoint of Japan, the Chinese was a +kindred race. The baffling enigma of the Chinese character to the +West was no baffling enigma to the Japanese. The Japanese +understood as we could never school ourselves or hope to +understand. Their mental processes were the same. The Japanese +thought with the same thought-symbols as did the Chinese, and they +thought in the same peculiar grooves. Into the Chinese mind the +Japanese went on where we were balked by the obstacle of +incomprehension. They took the turning which we could not +perceive, twisted around the obstacle, and were out of sight in the +ramifications of the Chinese mind where we could not follow. They +were brothers. Long ago one had borrowed the other's written +language, and, untold generations before that, they had diverged +from the common Mongol stock. There had been changes, +differentiations brought about by diverse conditions and infusions +of other blood; but down at the bottom of their beings, twisted +into the fibres of them, was a heritage in common, a sameness in +kind that time had not obliterated. + +And so Japan took upon herself the management of China. In the +years immediately following the war with Russia, her agents swarmed +over the Chinese Empire. A thousand miles beyond the last mission +station toiled her engineers and spies, clad as coolies, under the +guise of itinerant merchants or proselytizing Buddhist priests, +noting down the horse-power of every waterfall, the likely sites +for factories, the heights of mountains and passes, the strategic +advantages and weaknesses, the wealth of the farming valleys, the +number of bullocks in a district or the number of labourers that +could be collected by forced levies. Never was there such a +census, and it could have been taken by no other people than the +dogged, patient, patriotic Japanese. + +But in a short time secrecy was thrown to the winds. Japan's +officers reorganized the Chinese army; her drill sergeants made the +mediaeval warriors over into twentieth century soldiers, accustomed +to all the modern machinery of war and with a higher average of +marksmanship than the soldiers of any Western nation. The +engineers of Japan deepened and widened the intricate system of +canals, built factories and foundries, netted the empire with +telegraphs and telephones, and inaugurated the era of railroad- +building. It was these same protagonists of machine-civilization +that discovered the great oil deposits of Chunsan, the iron +mountains of Whang-Sing, the copper ranges of Chinchi, and they +sank the gas wells of Wow-Wee, that most marvellous reservoir of +natural gas in all the world. + +In China's councils of empire were the Japanese emissaries. In the +ears of the statesmen whispered the Japanese statesmen. The +political reconstruction of the Empire was due to them. They +evicted the scholar class, which was violently reactionary, and put +into office progressive officials. And in every town and city of +the Empire newspapers were started. Of course, Japanese editors +ran the policy of these papers, which policy they got direct from +Tokio. It was these papers that educated and made progressive the +great mass of the population. + +China was at last awake. Where the West had failed, Japan +succeeded. She had transmuted Western culture and achievement into +terms that were intelligible to the Chinese understanding. Japan +herself, when she so suddenly awakened, had astounded the world. +But at the time she was only forty millions strong. China's +awakening, with her four hundred millions and the scientific +advance of the world, was frightfully astounding. She was the +colossus of the nations, and swiftly her voice was heard in no +uncertain tones in the affairs and councils of the nations. Japan +egged her on, and the proud Western peoples listened with +respectful ears. + +China's swift and remarkable rise was due, perhaps more than to +anything else, to the superlative quality of her labour. The +Chinese was the perfect type of industry. He had always been that. +For sheer ability to work no worker in the world could compare with +him. Work was the breath of his nostrils. It was to him what +wandering and fighting in far lands and spiritual adventure had +been to other peoples. Liberty, to him, epitomized itself in +access to the means of toil. To till the soil and labour +interminably was all he asked of life and the powers that be. And +the awakening of China had given its vast population not merely +free and unlimited access to the means of toil, but access to the +highest and most scientific machine-means of toil. + +China rejuvenescent! It was but a step to China rampant. She +discovered a new pride in herself and a will of her own. She began +to chafe under the guidance of Japan, but she did not chafe long. +On Japan's advice, in the beginning, she had expelled from the +Empire all Western missionaries, engineers, drill sergeants, +merchants, and teachers. She now began to expel the similar +representatives of Japan. The latter's advisory statesmen were +showered with honours and decorations, and sent home. The West had +awakened Japan, and, as Japan had then requited the West, Japan was +not requited by China. Japan was thanked for her kindly aid and +flung out bag and baggage by her gigantic protege. The Western +nations chuckled. Japan's rainbow dream had gone glimmering. She +grew angry. China laughed at her. The blood and the swords of the +Samurai would out, and Japan rashly went to war. This occurred in +1922, and in seven bloody months Manchuria, Korea, and Formosa were +taken away from her and she was hurled back, bankrupt, to stifle in +her tiny, crowded islands. Exit Japan from the world drama. +Thereafter she devoted herself to art, and her task became to +please the world greatly with her creations of wonder and beauty. + +Contrary to expectation, China did not prove warlike. She had no +Napoleonic dream, and was content to devote herself to the arts of +peace. After a time of disquiet, the idea was accepted that China +was to be feared, not in war, but in commerce. It will be seen +that the real danger was not apprehended. China went on +consummating her machine-civilization. Instead of a large standing +army, she developed an immensely larger and splendidly efficient +militia. Her navy was so small that it was the laughing stock of +the world; nor did she attempt to strengthen her navy. The treaty +ports of the world were never entered by her visiting battleships. + +The real danger lay in the fecundity of her loins, and it was in +1970 that the first cry of alarm was raised. For some time all +territories adjacent to China had been grumbling at Chinese +immigration; but now it suddenly came home to the world that +China's population was 500,000,000. She had increased by a hundred +millions since her awakening. Burchaldter called attention to the +fact that there were more Chinese in existence than white-skinned +people. He performed a simple sum in arithmetic. He added +together the populations of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, +Australia, South Africa, England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, +European Russia, and all Scandinavia. The result was 495,000,000. +And the population of China overtopped this tremendous total by +5,000,000. Burchaldter's figures went round the world, and the +world shivered. + +For many centuries China's population had been constant. Her +territory had been saturated with population; that is to say, her +territory, with the primitive method of production, had supported +the maximum limit of population. But when she awoke and +inaugurated the machine-civilization, her productive power had been +enormously increased. Thus, on the same territory, she was able to +support a far larger population. At once the birth rate began to +rise and the death rate to fall. Before, when population pressed +against the means of subsistence, the excess population had been +swept away by famine. But now, thanks to the machine-civilization, +China's means of subsistence had been enormously extended, and +there were no famines; her population followed on the heels of the +increase in the means of subsistence. + +During this time of transition and development of power, China had +entertained no dreams of conquest. The Chinese was not an imperial +race. It was industrious, thrifty, and peace-loving. War was +looked upon as an unpleasant but necessary task that at times must +be performed. And so, while the Western races had squabbled and +fought, and world-adventured against one another, China had calmly +gone on working at her machines and growing. Now she was spilling +over the boundaries of her Empire--that was all, just spilling over +into the adjacent territories with all the certainty and terrifying +slow momentum of a glacier. + +Following upon the alarm raised by Burchaldter's figures, in 1970 +France made a long-threatened stand. French Indo-China had been +overrun, filled up, by Chinese immigrants. France called a halt. +The Chinese wave flowed on. France assembled a force of a hundred +thousand on the boundary between her unfortunate colony and China, +and China sent down an army of militia-soldiers a million strong. +Behind came the wives and sons and daughters and relatives, with +their personal household luggage, in a second army. The French +force was brushed aside like a fly. The Chinese militia-soldiers, +along with their families, over five millions all told, coolly took +possession of French Indo-China and settled down to stay for a few +thousand years. + +Outraged France was in arms. She hurled fleet after fleet against +the coast of China, and nearly bankrupted herself by the effort. +China had no navy. She withdrew like a turtle into her shell. For +a year the French fleets blockaded the coast and bombarded exposed +towns and villages. China did not mind. She did not depend upon +the rest of the world for anything. She calmly kept out of range +of the French guns and went on working. France wept and wailed, +wrung her impotent hands and appealed to the dumfounded nations. +Then she landed a punitive expedition to march to Peking. It was +two hundred and fifty thousand strong, and it was the flower of +France. It landed without opposition and marched into the +interior. And that was the last ever seen of it. The line of +communication was snapped on the second day. Not a survivor came +back to tell what had happened. It had been swallowed up in +China's cavernous maw, that was all. + +In the five years that followed, China's expansion, in all land +directions, went on apace. Siam was made part of the Empire, and, +in spite of all that England could do, Burma and the Malay +Peninsula were overrun; while all along the long south boundary of +Siberia, Russia was pressed severely by China's advancing hordes. +The process was simple. First came the Chinese immigration (or, +rather, it was already there, having come there slowly and +insidiously during the previous years). Next came the clash of +arms and the brushing away of all opposition by a monster army of +militia-soldiers, followed by their families and household baggage. +And finally came their settling down as colonists in the conquered +territory. Never was there so strange and effective a method of +world conquest. + +Napal and Bhutan were overrun, and the whole northern boundary of +India pressed against by this fearful tide of life. To the west, +Bokhara, and, even to the south and west, Afghanistan, were +swallowed up. Persia, Turkestan, and all Central Asia felt the +pressure of the flood. It was at this time that Burchaldter +revised his figures. He had been mistaken. China's population +must be seven hundred millions, eight hundred millions, nobody knew +how many millions, but at any rate it would soon be a billion. +There were two Chinese for every white-skinned human in the world, +Burchaldter announced, and the world trembled. China's increase +must have begun immediately, in 1904. It was remembered that since +that date there had not been a single famine. At 5,000,000 a year +increase, her total increase in the intervening seventy years must +be 350,000,000. But who was to know? It might be more. Who was +to know anything of this strange new menace of the twentieth +century--China, old China, rejuvenescent, fruitful, and militant! + +The Convention of 1975 was called at Philadelphia. All the Western +nations, and some few of the Eastern, were represented. Nothing +was accomplished. There was talk of all countries putting bounties +on children to increase the birth rate, but it was laughed to scorn +by the arithmeticians, who pointed out that China was too far in +the lead in that direction. No feasible way of coping with China +was suggested. China was appealed to and threatened by the United +Powers, and that was all the Convention of Philadelphia came to; +and the Convention and the Powers were laughed at by China. Li +Tang Fwung, the power behind the Dragon Throne, deigned to reply. + +"What does China care for the comity of nations?" said Li Tang +Fwung. "We are the most ancient, honourable, and royal of races. +We have our own destiny to accomplish. It is unpleasant that our +destiny does not tally with the destiny of the rest of the world, +but what would you? You have talked windily about the royal races +and the heritage of the earth, and we can only reply that that +remains to be seen. You cannot invade us. Never mind about your +navies. Don't shout. We know our navy is small. You see we use +it for police purposes. We do not care for the sea. Our strength +is in our population, which will soon be a billion. Thanks to you, +we are equipped with all modern war-machinery. Send your navies. +We will not notice them. Send your punitive expeditions, but first +remember France. To land half a million soldiers on our shores +would strain the resources of any of you. And our thousand +millions would swallow them down in a mouthful. Send a million; +send five millions, and we will swallow them down just as readily. +Pouf! A mere nothing, a meagre morsel. Destroy, as you have +threatened, you United States, the ten million coolies we have +forced upon your shores--why, the amount scarcely equals half of +our excess birth rate for a year." + +So spoke Li Tang Fwung. The world was nonplussed, helpless, +terrified. Truly had he spoken. There was no combating China's +amazing birth rate. If her population was a billion, and was +increasing twenty millions a year, in twenty-five years it would be +a billion and a half--equal to the total population of the world in +1904. And nothing could be done. There was no way to dam up the +over-spilling monstrous flood of life. War was futile. China +laughed at a blockade of her coasts. She welcomed invasion. In +her capacious maw was room for all the hosts of earth that could be +hurled at her. And in the meantime her flood of yellow life poured +out and on over Asia. China laughed and read in their magazines +the learned lucubrations of the distracted Western scholars. + +But there was one scholar China failed to reckon on--Jacobus +Laningdale. Not that he was a scholar, except in the widest sense. +Primarily, Jacobus Laningdale was a scientist, and, up to that +time, a very obscure scientist, a professor employed in the +laboratories of the Health Office of New York City. Jacobus +Laningdale's head was very like any other head, but in that head +was evolved an idea. Also, in that head was the wisdom to keep +that idea secret. He did not write an article for the magazines. +Instead, he asked for a vacation. On September 19, 1975, he +arrived in Washington. It was evening, but he proceeded straight +to the White House, for he had already arranged an audience with +the President. He was closeted with President Moyer for three +hours. What passed between them was not learned by the rest of the +world until long after; in fact, at that time the world was not +interested in Jacobus Laningdale. Next day the President called in +his Cabinet. Jacobus Laningdale was present. The proceedings were +kept secret. But that very afternoon Rufus Cowdery, Secretary of +State, left Washington, and early the following morning sailed for +England. The secret that he carried began to spread, but it spread +only among the heads of Governments. Possibly half-a-dozen men in +a nation were entrusted with the idea that had formed in Jacobus +Laningdale's head. Following the spread of the secret, sprang up +great activity in all the dockyards, arsenals, and navy-yards. The +people of France and Austria became suspicious, but so sincere were +their Governments' calls for confidence that they acquiesced in the +unknown project that was afoot. + +This was the time of the Great Truce. All countries pledged +themselves solemnly not to go to war with any other country. The +first definite action was the gradual mobilization of the armies of +Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Then began +the eastward movement. All railroads into Asia were glutted with +troop trains. China was the objective, that was all that was +known. A little later began the great sea movement. Expeditions +of warships were launched from all countries. Fleet followed +fleet, and all proceeded to the coast of China. The nations +cleaned out their navy-yards. They sent their revenue cutters and +dispatch boots and lighthouse tenders, and they sent their last +antiquated cruisers and battleships. Not content with this, they +impressed the merchant marine. The statistics show that 58,640 +merchant steamers, equipped with searchlights and rapid-fire guns, +were despatched by the various nations to China. + +And China smiled and waited. On her land side, along her +boundaries, were millions of the warriors of Europe. She mobilized +five times as many millions of her militia and awaited the +invasion. On her sea coasts she did the same. But China was +puzzled. After all this enormous preparation, there was no +invasion. She could not understand. Along the great Siberian +frontier all was quiet. Along her coasts the towns and villages +were not even shelled. Never, in the history of the world, had +there been so mighty a gathering of war fleets. The fleets of all +the world were there, and day and night millions of tons of +battleships ploughed the brine of her coasts, and nothing happened. +Nothing was attempted. Did they think to make her emerge from her +shell? China smiled. Did they think to tire her out, or starve +her out? China smiled again. + +But on May 1, 1976, had the reader been in the imperial city of +Peking, with its then population of eleven millions, he would have +witnessed a curious sight. He would have seen the streets filled +with the chattering yellow populace, every queued head tilted back, +every slant eye turned skyward. And high up in the blue he would +have beheld a tiny dot of black, which, because of its orderly +evolutions, he would have identified as an airship. From this +airship, as it curved its flight back and forth over the city, fell +missiles--strange, harmless missiles, tubes of fragile glass that +shattered into thousands of fragments on the streets and house- +tops. But there was nothing deadly about these tubes of glass. +Nothing happened. There were no explosions. It is true, three +Chinese were killed by the tubes dropping on their heads from so +enormous a height; but what were three Chinese against an excess +birth rate of twenty millions? One tube struck perpendicularly in +a fish-pond in a garden and was not broken. It was dragged ashore +by the master of the house. He did not dare to open it, but, +accompanied by his friends, and surrounded by an ever-increasing +crowd, he carried the mysterious tube to the magistrate of the +district. The latter was a brave man. With all eyes upon him, he +shattered the tube with a blow from his brass-bowled pipe. Nothing +happened. Of those who were very near, one or two thought they saw +some mosquitoes fly out. That was all. The crowd set up a great +laugh and dispersed. + +As Peking was bombarded by glass tubes, so was all China. The tiny +airships, dispatched from the warships, contained but two men each, +and over all cities, towns, and villages they wheeled and curved, +one man directing the ship, the other man throwing over the glass +tubes. + +Had the reader again been in Peking, six weeks later, he would have +looked in vain for the eleven million inhabitants. Some few of +them he would have found, a few hundred thousand, perhaps, their +carcasses festering in the houses and in the deserted streets, and +piled high on the abandoned death-waggons. But for the rest he +would have had to seek along the highways and byways of the Empire. +And not all would he have found fleeing from plague-stricken +Peking, for behind them, by hundreds of thousands of unburied +corpses by the wayside, he could have marked their flight. And as +it was with Peking, so it was with all the cities, towns, and +villages of the Empire. The plague smote them all. Nor was it one +plague, nor two plagues; it was a score of plagues. Every virulent +form of infectious death stalked through the land. Too late the +Chinese government apprehended the meaning of the colossal +preparations, the marshalling of the world-hosts, the flights of +the tin airships, and the rain of the tubes of glass. The +proclamations of the government were vain. They could not stop the +eleven million plague-stricken wretches, fleeing from the one city +of Peking to spread disease through all the land. The physicians +and health officers died at their posts; and death, the all- +conqueror, rode over the decrees of the Emperor and Li Tang Fwung. +It rode over them as well, for Li Tang Fwung died in the second +week, and the Emperor, hidden away in the Summer Palace, died in +the fourth week. + +Had there been one plague, China might have coped with it. But +from a score of plagues no creature was immune. The man who +escaped smallpox went down before scarlet fever. The man who was +immune to yellow fever was carried away by cholera; and if he were +immune to that, too, the Black Death, which was the bubonic plague, +swept him away. For it was these bacteria, and germs, and +microbes, and bacilli, cultured in the laboratories of the West, +that had come down upon China in the rain of glass. + +All organization vanished. The government crumbled away. Decrees +and proclamations were useless when the men who made them and +signed them one moment were dead the next. Nor could the maddened +millions, spurred on to flight by death, pause to heed anything. +They fled from the cities to infect the country, and wherever they +fled they carried the plagues with them. The hot summer was on-- +Jacobus Laningdale had selected the time shrewdly--and the plague +festered everywhere. Much is conjectured of what occurred, and +much has been learned from the stories of the few survivors. The +wretched creatures stormed across the Empire in many-millioned +flight. The vast armies China had collected on her frontiers +melted away. The farms were ravaged for food, and no more crops +were planted, while the crops already in were left unattended and +never came to harvest. The most remarkable thing, perhaps, was the +flights. Many millions engaged in them, charging to the bounds of +the Empire to be met and turned back by the gigantic armies of the +West. The slaughter of the mad hosts on the boundaries was +stupendous. Time and again the guarding line was drawn back twenty +or thirty miles to escape the contagion of the multitudinous dead. + +Once the plague broke through and seized upon the German and +Austrian soldiers who were guarding the borders of Turkestan. +Preparations had been made for such a happening, and though sixty +thousand soldiers of Europe were carried off, the international +corps of physicians isolated the contagion and dammed it back. It +was during this struggle that it was suggested that a new plague- +germ had originated, that in some way or other a sort of +hybridization between plague-germs had taken place, producing a new +and frightfully virulent germ. First suspected by Vomberg, who +became infected with it and died, it was later isolated and studied +by Stevens, Hazenfelt, Norman, and Landers. + +Such was the unparalleled invasion of China. For that billion of +people there was no hope. Pent in their vast and festering +charnel-house, all organization and cohesion lost, they could do +naught but die. They could not escape. As they were flung back +from their land frontiers, so were they flung back from the sea. +Seventy-five thousand vessels patrolled the coasts. By day their +smoking funnels dimmed the sea-rim, and by night their flashing +searchlights ploughed the dark and harrowed it for the tiniest +escaping junk. The attempts of the immense fleets of junks were +pitiful. Not one ever got by the guarding sea-hounds. Modern war- +machinery held back the disorganized mass of China, while the +plagues did the work. + +But old War was made a thing of laughter. Naught remained to him +but patrol duty. China had laughed at war, and war she was +getting, but it was ultra-modern war, twentieth century war, the +war of the scientist and the laboratory, the war of Jacobus +Laningdale. Hundred-ton guns were toys compared with the micro- +organic projectiles hurled from the laboratories, the messengers of +death, the destroying angels that stalked through the empire of a +billion souls. + +During all the summer and fall of 1976 China was an inferno. There +was no eluding the microscopic projectiles that sought out the +remotest hiding-places. The hundreds of millions of dead remained +unburied and the germs multiplied themselves, and, toward the last, +millions died daily of starvation. Besides, starvation weakened +the victims and destroyed their natural defences against the +plagues. Cannibalism, murder, and madness reigned. And so +perished China. + +Not until the following February, in the coldest weather, were the +first expeditions made. These expeditions were small, composed of +scientists and bodies of troops; but they entered China from every +side. In spite of the most elaborate precautions against +infection, numbers of soldiers and a few of the physicians were +stricken. But the exploration went bravely on. They found China +devastated, a howling wilderness through which wandered bands of +wild dogs and desperate bandits who had survived. All survivors +were put to death wherever found. And then began the great task, +the sanitation of China. Five years and hundreds of millions of +treasure were consumed, and then the world moved in--not in zones, +as was the idea of Baron Albrecht, but heterogeneously, according +to the democratic American programme. It was a vast and happy +intermingling of nationalities that settled down in China in 1982 +and the years that followed--a tremendous and successful experiment +in cross-fertilization. We know to-day the splendid mechanical, +intellectual, and art output that followed. + +It was in 1987, the Great Truce having been dissolved, that the +ancient quarrel between France and Germany over Alsace-Lorraine +recrudesced. The war-cloud grew dark and threatening in April, and +on April 17 the Convention of Copenhagen was called. The +representatives of the nations of the world, being present, all +nations solemnly pledged themselves never to use against one +another the laboratory methods of warfare they had employed in the +invasion of China. + +--Excerpt from Walt Mervin's "Certain Essays in History." + + + +THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD + + + +It was Silas Bannerman who finally ran down that scientific wizard +and arch-enemy of mankind, Emil Gluck. Gluck's confession, before +he went to the electric chair, threw much light upon the series of +mysterious events, many apparently unrelated, that so perturbed the +world between the years 1933 and 1941. It was not until that +remarkable document was made public that the world dreamed of there +being any connection between the assassination of the King and +Queen of Portugal and the murders of the New York City police +officers. While the deeds of Emil Gluck were all that was +abominable, we cannot but feel, to a certain extent, pity for the +unfortunate, malformed, and maltreated genius. This side of his +story has never been told before, and from his confession and from +the great mass of evidence and the documents and records of the +time we are able to construct a fairly accurate portrait of him, +and to discern the factors and pressures that moulded him into the +human monster he became and that drove him onward and downward +along the fearful path he trod. + +Emil Gluck was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1895. His father, +Josephus Gluck, was a special policeman and night watchman, who, in +the year 1900, died suddenly of pneumonia. The mother, a pretty, +fragile creature, who, before her marriage, had been a milliner, +grieved herself to death over the loss of her husband. This +sensitiveness of the mother was the heritage that in the boy became +morbid and horrible. + +In 1901, the boy, Emil, then six years of age, went to live with +his aunt, Mrs. Ann Bartell. She was his mother's sister, but in +her breast was no kindly feeling for the sensitive, shrinking boy. +Ann Bartell was a vain, shallow, and heartless woman. Also, she +was cursed with poverty and burdened with a husband who was a lazy, +erratic ne'er-do-well. Young Emil Gluck was not wanted, and Ann +Bartell could be trusted to impress this fact sufficiently upon +him. As an illustration of the treatment he received in that +early, formative period, the following instance is given. + +When he had been living in the Bartell home a little more than a +year, he broke his leg. He sustained the injury through playing on +the forbidden roof--as all boys have done and will continue to do +to the end of time. The leg was broken in two places between the +knee and thigh. Emil, helped by his frightened playmates, managed +to drag himself to the front sidewalk, where he fainted. The +children of the neighbourhood were afraid of the hard-featured +shrew who presided over the Bartell house; but, summoning their +resolution, they rang the bell and told Ann Bartell of the +accident. She did not even look at the little lad who lay stricken +on the sidewalk, but slammed the door and went back to her wash- +tub. The time passed. A drizzle came on, and Emil Gluck, out of +his faint, lay sobbing in the rain. The leg should have been set +immediately. As it was, the inflammation rose rapidly and made a +nasty case of it. At the end of two hours, the indignant women of +the neighbourhood protested to Ann Bartell. This time she came out +and looked at the lad. Also she kicked him in the side as he lay +helpless at her feet, and she hysterically disowned him. He was +not her child, she said, and recommended that the ambulance be +called to take him to the city receiving hospital. Then she went +back into the house. + +It was a woman, Elizabeth Shepstone, who came along, learned the +situation, and had the boy placed on a shutter. It was she who +called the doctor, and who, brushing aside Ann Bartell, had the boy +carried into the house. When the doctor arrived, Ann Bartell +promptly warned him that she would not pay him for his services. +For two months the little Emil lay in bed, the first month on his +back without once being turned over; and he lay neglected and +alone, save for the occasional visits of the unremunerated and +over-worked physician. He had no toys, nothing with which to +beguile the long and tedious hours. No kind word was spoken to +him, no soothing hand laid upon his brow, no single touch or act of +loving tenderness--naught but the reproaches and harshness of Ann +Bartell, and the continually reiterated information that he was not +wanted. And it can well be understood, in such environment, how +there was generated in the lonely, neglected boy much of the +bitterness and hostility for his kind that later was to express +itself in deeds so frightful as to terrify the world. + +It would seem strange that, from the hands of Ann Bartell, Emil +Gluck should have received a college education; but the explanation +is simple. Her ne'er-do-well husband, deserting her, made a strike +in the Nevada goldfields, and returned to her a many-times +millionaire. Ann Bartell hated the boy, and immediately she sent +him to the Farristown Academy, a hundred miles away. Shy and +sensitive, a lonely and misunderstood little soul, he was more +lonely than ever at Farristown. He never came home, at vacation, +and holidays, as the other boys did. Instead, he wandered about +the deserted buildings and grounds, befriended and misunderstood by +the servants and gardeners, reading much, it is remembered, +spending his days in the fields or before the fire-place with his +nose poked always in the pages of some book. It was at this time +that he over-used his eyes and was compelled to take up the wearing +of glasses, which same were so prominent in the photographs of him +published in the newspapers in 1941. + +He was a remarkable student. Application such as his would have +taken him far; but he did not need application. A glance at a text +meant mastery for him. The result was that he did an immense +amount of collateral reading and acquired more in half a year than +did the average student in half-a-dozen years. In 1909, barely +fourteen years of age, he was ready--"more than ready" the +headmaster of the academy said--to enter Yale or Harvard. His +juvenility prevented him from entering those universities, and so, +in 1909, we find him a freshman at historic Bowdoin College. In +1913 he graduated with highest honours, and immediately afterward +followed Professor Bradlough to Berkeley, California. The one +friend that Emil Gluck discovered in all his life was Professor +Bradlough. The latter's weak lungs had led him to exchange Maine +for California, the removal being facilitated by the offer of a +professorship in the State University. Throughout the year 1914, +Emil Gluck resided in Berkeley and took special scientific courses. +Toward the end of that year two deaths changed his prospects and +his relations with life. The death of Professor Bradlough took +from him the one friend he was ever to know, and the death of Ann +Bartell left him penniless. Hating the unfortunate lad to the +last, she cut him off with one hundred dollars. + +The following year, at twenty years of age, Emil Gluck was enrolled +as an instructor of chemistry in the University of California. +Here the years passed quietly; he faithfully performed the drudgery +that brought him his salary, and, a student always, he took half-a- +dozen degrees. He was, among other things, a Doctor of Sociology, +of Philosophy, and of Science, though he was known to the world, in +later days, only as Professor Gluck. + +He was twenty-seven years old when he first sprang into prominence +in the newspapers through the publication of his book, Sex and +Progress. The book remains to-day a milestone in the history and +philosophy of marriage. It is a heavy tome of over seven hundred +pages, painfully careful and accurate, and startlingly original. +It was a book for scientists, and not one calculated to make a +stir. But Gluck, in the last chapter, using barely three lines for +it, mentioned the hypothetical desirability of trial marriages. At +once the newspapers seized these three lines, "played them up +yellow," as the slang was in those days, and set the whole world +laughing at Emil Gluck, the bespectacled young professor of twenty- +seven. Photographers snapped him, he was besieged by reporters, +women's clubs throughout the land passed resolutions condemning him +and his immoral theories; and on the floor of the California +Assembly, while discussing the state appropriation to the +University, a motion demanding the expulsion of Gluck was made +under threat of withholding the appropriation--of course, none of +his persecutors had read the book; the twisted newspaper version of +only three lines of it was enough for them. Here began Emil +Gluck's hatred for newspaper men. By them his serious and +intrinsically valuable work of six years had been made a laughing- +stock and a notoriety. To his dying day, and to their everlasting +regret, he never forgave them. + +It was the newspapers that were responsible for the next disaster +that befell him. For the five years following the publication of +his book he had remained silent, and silence for a lonely man is +not good. One can conjecture sympathetically the awful solitude of +Emil Gluck in that populous University; for he was without friends +and without sympathy. His only recourse was books, and he went on +reading and studying enormously. But in 1927 he accepted an +invitation to appear before the Human Interest Society of +Emeryville. He did not trust himself to speak, and as we write we +have before us a copy of his learned paper. It is sober, +scholarly, and scientific, and, it must also be added, +conservative. But in one place he dealt with, and I quote his +words, "the industrial and social revolution that is taking place +in society." A reporter present seized upon the word "revolution," +divorced it from the text, and wrote a garbled account that made +Emil Gluck appear an anarchist. At once, "Professor Gluck, +anarchist," flamed over the wires and was appropriately "featured" +in all the newspapers in the land. + +He had attempted to reply to the previous newspaper attack, but now +he remained silent. Bitterness had already corroded his soul. The +University faculty appealed to him to defend himself, but he +sullenly declined, even refusing to enter in defence a copy of his +paper to save himself from expulsion. He refused to resign, and +was discharged from the University faculty. It must be added that +political pressure had been put upon the University Regents and the +President. + +Persecuted, maligned, and misunderstood, the forlorn and lonely man +made no attempt at retaliation. All his life he had been sinned +against, and all his life he had sinned against no one. But his +cup of bitterness was not yet full to overflowing. Having lost his +position, and being without any income, he had to find work. His +first place was at the Union Iron Works, in San Francisco, where he +proved a most able draughtsman. It was here that he obtained his +firsthand knowledge of battleships and their construction. But the +reporters discovered him and featured him in his new vocation. He +immediately resigned and found another place; but after the +reporters had driven him away from half-a-dozen positions, he +steeled himself to brazen out the newspaper persecution. This +occurred when he started his electroplating establishment--in +Oakland, on Telegraph Avenue. It was a small shop, employing three +men and two boys. Gluck himself worked long hours. Night after +night, as Policeman Carew testified on the stand, he did not leave +the shop till one and two in the morning. It was during this +period that he perfected the improved ignition device for gas- +engines, the royalties from which ultimately made him wealthy. + +He started his electroplating establishment early in the spring of +1928, and it was in the same year that he formed the disastrous +love attachment for Irene Tackley. Now it is not to be imagined +that an extraordinary creature such as Emil Gluck could be any +other than an extraordinary lover. In addition to his genius, his +loneliness, and his morbidness, it must be taken into consideration +that he knew nothing about women. Whatever tides of desire flooded +his being, he was unschooled in the conventional expression of +them; while his excessive timidity was bound to make his love- +making unusual. Irene Tackley was a rather pretty young woman, but +shallow and light-headed. At the time she worked in a small candy +store across the street from Gluck's shop. He used to come in and +drink ice-cream sodas and lemon-squashes, and stare at her. It +seems the girl did not care for him, and merely played with him. +He was "queer," she said; and at another time she called him a +crank when describing how he sat at the counter and peered at her +through his spectacles, blushing and stammering when she took +notice of him, and often leaving the shop in precipitate confusion. + +Gluck made her the most amazing presents--a silver tea-service, a +diamond ring, a set of furs, opera-glasses, a ponderous History of +the World in many volumes, and a motor-cycle all silver-plated in +his own shop. Enters now the girl's lover, putting his foot down, +showing great anger, compelling her to return Gluck's strange +assortment of presents. This man, William Sherbourne, was a gross +and stolid creature, a heavy-jawed man of the working class who had +become a successful building-contractor in a small way. Gluck did +not understand. He tried to get an explanation, attempting to +speak with the girl when she went home from work in the evening. +She complained to Sherbourne, and one night he gave Gluck a +beating. It was a very severe beating, for it is on the records of +the Red Cross Emergency Hospital that Gluck was treated there that +night and was unable to leave the hospital for a week. + +Still Gluck did not understand. He continued to seek an +explanation from the girl. In fear of Sherbourne, he applied to +the Chief of Police for permission to carry a revolver, which +permission was refused, the newspapers as usual playing it up +sensationally. Then came the murder of Irene Tackley, six days +before her contemplated marriage with Sherbourne. It was on a +Saturday night. She had worked late in the candy store, departing +after eleven o'clock with her week's wages in her purse. She rode +on a San Pablo Avenue surface car to Thirty-fourth Street, where +she alighted and started to walk the three blocks to her home. +That was the last seen of her alive. Next morning she was found, +strangled, in a vacant lot. + +Emil Gluck was immediately arrested. Nothing that he could do +could save him. He was convicted, not merely on circumstantial +evidence, but on evidence "cooked up" by the Oakland police. There +is no discussion but that a large portion of the evidence was +manufactured. The testimony of Captain Shehan was the sheerest +perjury, it being proved long afterward that on the night in +question he had not only not been in the vicinity of the murder, +but that he had been out of the city in a resort on the San Leandro +Road. The unfortunate Gluck received life imprisonment in San +Quentin, while the newspapers and the public held that it was a +miscarriage of justice--that the death penalty should have been +visited upon him. + +Gluck entered San Quentin prison on April 17, 1929. He was then +thirty-four years of age. And for three years and a half, much of +the time in solitary confinement, he was left to meditate upon the +injustice of man. It was during that period that his bitterness +corroded home and he became a hater of all his kind. Three other +things he did during the same period: he wrote his famous +treatise, Human Morals, his remarkable brochure, The Criminal Sane, +and he worked out his awful and monstrous scheme of revenge. It +was an episode that had occurred in his electroplating +establishment that suggested to him his unique weapon of revenge. +As stated in his confession, he worked every detail out +theoretically during his imprisonment, and was able, on his +release, immediately to embark on his career of vengeance. + +His release was sensational. Also it was miserably and criminally +delayed by the soulless legal red tape then in vogue. On the night +of February 1, 1932, Tim Haswell, a hold-up man, was shot during an +attempted robbery by a citizen of Piedmont Heights. Tim Haswell +lingered three days, during which time he not only confessed to the +murder of Irene Tackley, but furnished conclusive proofs of the +same. Bert Danniker, a convict dying of consumption in Folsom +Prison, was implicated as accessory, and his confession followed. +It is inconceivable to us of to-day--the bungling, dilatory +processes of justice a generation ago. Emil Gluck was proved in +February to be an innocent man, yet he was not released until the +following October. For eight months, a greatly wronged man, he was +compelled to undergo his unmerited punishment. This was not +conducive to sweetness and light, and we can well imagine how he +ate his soul with bitterness during those dreary eight months. + +He came back to the world in the fall of 1932, as usual a "feature" +topic in all the newspapers. The papers, instead of expressing +heartfelt regret, continued their old sensational persecution. One +paper did more--the San Francisco Intelligencer. John Hartwell, +its editor, elaborated an ingenious theory that got around the +confessions of the two criminals and went to show that Gluck was +responsible, after all, for the murder of Irene Tackley. Hartwell +died. And Sherbourne died too, while Policeman Phillipps was shot +in the leg and discharged from the Oakland police force. + +The murder of Hartwell was long a mystery. He was alone in his +editorial office at the time. The reports of the revolver were +heard by the office boy, who rushed in to find Hartwell expiring in +his chair. What puzzled the police was the fact, not merely that +he had been shot with his own revolver, but that the revolver had +been exploded in the drawer of his desk. The bullets had torn +through the front of the drawer and entered his body. The police +scouted the theory of suicide, murder was dismissed as absurd, and +the blame was thrown upon the Eureka Smokeless Cartridge Company. +Spontaneous explosion was the police explanation, and the chemists +of the cartridge company were well bullied at the inquest. But +what the police did not know was that across the street, in the +Mercer Building, Room 633, rented by Emil Gluck, had been occupied +by Emil Gluck at the very moment Hartwell's revolver so +mysteriously exploded. + +At the time, no connection was made between Hartwell's death and +the death of William Sherbourne. Sherbourne had continued to live +in the home he had built for Irene Tackley, and one morning in +January, 1933, he was found dead. Suicide was the verdict of the +coroner's inquest, for he had been shot by his own revolver. The +curious thing that happened that night was the shooting of +Policeman Phillipps on the sidewalk in front of Sherbourne's house. +The policeman crawled to a police telephone on the corner and rang +up for an ambulance. He claimed that some one had shot him from +behind in the leg. The leg in question was so badly shattered by +three '38 calibre bullets that amputation was necessary. But when +the police discovered that the damage had been done by his own +revolver, a great laugh went up, and he was charged with having +been drunk. In spite of his denial of having touched a drop, and +of his persistent assertion that the revolver had been in his hip +pocket and that he had not laid a finger to it, he was discharged +from the force. Emil Gluck's confession, six years later, cleared +the unfortunate policeman of disgrace, and he is alive to-day and +in good health, the recipient of a handsome pension from the city. + +Emil Gluck, having disposed of his immediate enemies, now sought a +wider field, though his enmity for newspaper men and for the police +remained always active. The royalties on his ignition device for +gasolene-engines had mounted up while he lay in prison, and year by +year the earning power of his invention increased. He was +independent, able to travel wherever he willed over the earth and +to glut his monstrous appetite for revenge. He had become a +monomaniac and an anarchist--not a philosophic anarchist, merely, +but a violent anarchist. Perhaps the word is misused, and he is +better described as a nihilist, or an annihilist. It is known that +he affiliated with none of the groups of terrorists. He operated +wholly alone, but he created a thousandfold more terror and +achieved a thousandfold more destruction than all the terrorist +groups added together. + +He signalized his departure from California by blowing up Fort +Mason. In his confession he spoke of it as a little experiment--he +was merely trying his hand. For eight years he wandered over the +earth, a mysterious terror, destroying property to the tune of +hundreds of millions of dollars, and destroying countless lives. +One good result of his awful deeds was the destruction he wrought +among the terrorists themselves. Every time he did anything the +terrorists in the vicinity were gathered in by the police dragnet, +and many of them were executed. Seventeen were executed at Rome +alone, following the assassination of the Italian King. + +Perhaps the most world-amazing achievement of his was the +assassination of the King and Queen of Portugal. It was their +wedding day. All possible precautions had been taken against the +terrorists, and the way from the cathedral, through Lisbon's +streets, was double-banked with troops, while a squad of two +hundred mounted troopers surrounded the carriage. Suddenly the +amazing thing happened. The automatic rifles of the troopers began +to go off, as well as the rifles, in the immediate vicinity, of the +double-banked infantry. In the excitement the muzzles of the +exploding rifles were turned in all directions. The slaughter was +terrible--horses, troops, spectators, and the King and Queen, were +riddled with bullets. To complicate the affair, in different parts +of the crowd behind the foot-soldiers, two terrorists had bombs +explode on their persons. These bombs they had intended to throw +if they got the opportunity. But who was to know this? The +frightful havoc wrought by the bursting bombs but added to the +confusion; it was considered part of the general attack. + +One puzzling thing that could not be explained away was the conduct +of the troopers with their exploding rifles. It seemed impossible +that they should be in the plot, yet there were the hundreds their +flying bullets had slain, including the King and Queen. On the +other hand, more baffling than ever was the fact that seventy per +cent. of the troopers themselves had been killed or wounded. Some +explained this on the ground that the loyal foot-soldiers, +witnessing the attack on the royal carriage, had opened fire on the +traitors. Yet not one bit of evidence to verify this could be +drawn from the survivors, though many were put to the torture. +They contended stubbornly that they had not discharged their rifles +at all, but that their rifles had discharged themselves. They were +laughed at by the chemists, who held that, while it was just barely +probable that a single cartridge, charged with the new smokeless +powder, might spontaneously explode, it was beyond all probability +and possibility for all the cartridges in a given area, so charged, +spontaneously to explode. And so, in the end, no explanation of +the amazing occurrence was reached. The general opinion of the +rest of the world was that the whole affair was a blind panic of +the feverish Latins, precipitated, it was true, by the bursting of +two terrorist bombs; and in this connection was recalled the +laughable encounter of long years before between the Russian fleet +and the English fishing boats. + +And Emil Gluck chuckled and went his way. He knew. But how was +the world to know? He had stumbled upon the secret in his old +electroplating shop on Telegraph Avenue in the city of Oakland. It +happened, at that time, that a wireless telegraph station was +established by the Thurston Power Company close to his shop. In a +short time his electroplating vat was put out of order. The vat- +wiring had many bad joints, and, on investigation, Gluck discovered +minute welds at the joints in the wiring. These, by lowering the +resistance, had caused an excessive current to pass through the +solution, "boiling" it and spoiling the work. But what had caused +the welds? was the question in Gluck's mind. His reasoning was +simple. Before the establishment of the wireless station, the vat +had worked well. Not until after the establishment of the wireless +station had the vat been ruined. Therefore the wireless station +had been the cause. But how? He quickly answered the question. +If an electric discharge was capable of operating a coherer across +three thousand miles of ocean, then, certainly, the electric +discharges from the wireless station four hundred feet away could +produce coherer effects on the bad joints in the vat-wiring. + +Gluck thought no more about it at the time. He merely re-wired his +vat and went on electroplating. But afterwards, in prison, he +remembered the incident, and like a flash there came into his mind +the full significance of it. He saw in it the silent, secret +weapon with which to revenge himself on the world. His great +discovery, which died with him, was control over the direction and +scope of the electric discharge. At the time, this was the +unsolved problem of wireless telegraphy--as it still is to-day--but +Emil Gluck, in his prison cell, mastered it. And, when he was +released, he applied it. It was fairly simple, given the directing +power that was his, to introduce a spark into the powder-magazines +of a fort, a battleship, or a revolver. And not alone could he +thus explode powder at a distance, but he could ignite +conflagrations. The great Boston fire was started by him--quite by +accident, however, as he stated in his confession, adding that it +was a pleasing accident and that he had never had any reason to +regret it. + +It was Emil Gluck that caused the terrible German-American War, +with the loss of 800,000 lives and the consumption of almost +incalculable treasure. It will be remembered that in 1939, because +of the Pickard incident, strained relations existed between the two +countries. Germany, though aggrieved, was not anxious for war, +and, as a peace token, sent the Crown Prince and seven battleships +on a friendly visit to the United States. On the night of February +15, the seven warships lay at anchor in the Hudson opposite New +York City. And on that night Emil Gluck, alone, with all his +apparatus on board, was out in a launch. This launch, it was +afterwards proved, was bought by him from the Ross Turner Company, +while much of the apparatus he used that night had been purchased +from the Columbia Electric Works. But this was not known at the +time. All that was known was that the seven battleships blew up, +one after another, at regular four-minute intervals. Ninety per +cent. of the crews and officers, along with the Crown Prince, +perished. Many years before, the American battleship Maine had +been blown up in the harbour of Havana, and war with Spain had +immediately followed--though there has always existed a reasonable +doubt as to whether the explosion was due to conspiracy or +accident. But accident could not explain the blowing up of the +seven battleships on the Hudson at four-minute intervals. Germany +believed that it had been done by a submarine, and immediately +declared war. It was six months after Gluck's confession that she +returned the Philippines and Hawaii to the United States. + +In the meanwhile Emil Gluck, the malevolent wizard and arch-hater, +travelled his whirlwind path of destruction. He left no traces. +Scientifically thorough, he always cleaned up after himself. His +method was to rent a room or a house, and secretly to install his +apparatus--which apparatus, by the way, he so perfected and +simplified that it occupied little space. After he had +accomplished his purpose he carefully removed the apparatus. He +bade fair to live out a long life of horrible crime. + +The epidemic of shooting of New York City policemen was a +remarkable affair. It became one of the horror mysteries of the +time. In two short weeks over a hundred policemen were shot in the +legs by their own revolvers. Inspector Jones did not solve the +mystery, but it was his idea that finally outwitted Gluck. On his +recommendation the policemen ceased carrying revolvers, and no more +accidental shootings occurred. + +It was in the early spring of 1940 that Gluck destroyed the Mare +Island navy-yard. From a room in Vallejo he sent his electric +discharges across the Vallejo Straits to Mare Island. He first +played his flashes on the battleship Maryland. She lay at the dock +of one of the mine-magazines. On her forward deck, on a huge +temporary platform of timbers, were disposed over a hundred mines. +These mines were for the defence of the Golden Gate. Any one of +these mines was capable of destroying a dozen battleships, and +there were over a hundred mines. The destruction was terrific, but +it was only Gluck's overture. He played his flashes down the Mare +Island shore, blowing up five torpedo boats, the torpedo station, +and the great magazine at the eastern end of the island. Returning +westward again, and scooping in occasional isolated magazines on +the high ground back from the shore, he blew up three cruisers and +the battleships Oregon, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Florida--the +latter had just gone into dry-dock, and the magnificent dry-dock +was destroyed along with her. + +It was a frightful catastrophe, and a shiver of horror passed +through the land. But it was nothing to what was to follow. In +the late fall of that year Emil Gluck made a clean sweep of the +Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Florida. Nothing escaped. Forts, +mines, coast defences of all sorts, torpedo stations, magazines-- +everything went up. Three months afterward, in midwinter, he smote +the north shore of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Greece in +the same stupefying manner. A wail went up from the nations. It +was clear that human agency was behind all this destruction, and it +was equally clear, through Emil Gluck's impartiality, that the +destruction was not the work of any particular nation. One thing +was patent, namely, that whoever was the human behind it all, that +human was a menace to the world. No nation was safe. There was no +defence against this unknown and all-powerful foe. Warfare was +futile--nay, not merely futile but itself the very essence of the +peril. For a twelve-month the manufacture of powder ceased, and +all soldiers and sailors were withdrawn from all fortifications and +war vessels. And even a world-disarmament was seriously considered +at the Convention of the Powers, held at The Hague at that time. + +And then Silas Bannerman, a secret service agent of the United +States, leaped into world-fame by arresting Emil Gluck. At first +Bannerman was laughed at, but he had prepared his case well, and in +a few weeks the most sceptical were convinced of Emil Gluck's +guilt. The one thing, however, that Silas Bannerman never +succeeded in explaining, even to his own satisfaction, was how +first he came to connect Gluck with the atrocious crimes. It is +true, Bannerman was in Vallejo, on secret government business, at +the time of the destruction of Mare Island; and it is true that on +the streets of Vallejo Emil Gluck was pointed out to him as a queer +crank; but no impression was made at the time. It was not until +afterward, when on a vacation in the Rocky Mountains and when +reading the first published reports of the destruction along the +Atlantic Coast, that suddenly Bannerman thought of Emil Gluck. And +on the instant there flashed into his mind the connection between +Gluck and the destruction. It was only an hypothesis, but it was +sufficient. The great thing was the conception of the hypothesis, +in itself an act of unconscious cerebration--a thing as +unaccountable as the flashing, for instance, into Newton's mind of +the principle of gravitation. + +The rest was easy. Where was Gluck at the time of the destruction +along the Atlantic sea-board? was the question that formed in +Bannerman's mind. By his own request he was put upon the case. In +no time he ascertained that Gluck had himself been up and down the +Atlantic Coast in the late fall of 1940. Also he ascertained that +Gluck had been in New York City during the epidemic of the shooting +of police officers. Where was Gluck now? was Bannerman's next +query. And, as if in answer, came the wholesale destruction along +the Mediterranean. Gluck had sailed for Europe a month before-- +Bannerman knew that. It was not necessary for Bannerman to go to +Europe. By means of cable messages and the co-operation of the +European secret services, he traced Gluck's course along the +Mediterranean and found that in every instance it coincided with +the blowing up of coast defences and ships. Also, he learned that +Gluck had just sailed on the Green Star liner Plutonic for the +United States. + +The case was complete in Bannerman's mind, though in the interval +of waiting he worked up the details. In this he was ably assisted +by George Brown, an operator employed by the Wood's System of +Wireless Telegraphy. When the Plutonic arrived off Sandy Hook she +was boarded by Bannerman from a Government tug, and Emil Gluck was +made a prisoner. The trial and the confession followed. In the +confession Gluck professed regret only for one thing, namely, that +he had taken his time. As he said, had he dreamed that he was ever +to be discovered he would have worked more rapidly and accomplished +a thousand times the destruction he did. His secret died with him, +though it is now known that the French Government managed to get +access to him and offered him a billion francs for his invention +wherewith he was able to direct and closely to confine electric +discharges. "What!" was Gluck's reply--"to sell to you that which +would enable you to enslave and maltreat suffering Humanity?" And +though the war departments of the nations have continued to +experiment in their secret laboratories, they have so far failed to +light upon the slightest trace of the secret. Emil Gluck was +executed on December 4, 1941, and so died, at the age of forty-six, +one of the world's most unfortunate geniuses, a man of tremendous +intellect, but whose mighty powers, instead of making toward good, +were so twisted and warped that he became the most amazing of +criminals. + +--Culled from Mr. A. G. Burnside's "Eccentricitics of Crime," by +kind permission of the publishers, Messrs. Holiday and Whitsund. + + + +THE DREAM OF DEBS + + + +I awoke fully an hour before my customary time. This in itself was +remarkable, and I lay very wide awake, pondering over it. +Something was the matter, something was wrong--I knew not what. I +was oppressed by a premonition of something terrible that had +happened or was about to happen. But what was it? I strove to +orient myself. I remembered that at the time of the Great +Earthquake of 1906 many claimed they awakened some moments before +the first shock and that during these moments they experienced +strange feelings of dread. Was San Francisco again to be visited +by earthquake? + +I lay for a full minute, numbly expectant, but there occurred no +reeling of walls nor shock and grind of falling masonry. All was +quiet. That was it! The silence! No wonder I had been perturbed. +The hum of the great live city was strangely absent. The surface +cars passed along my street, at that time of day, on an average of +one every three minutes; but in the ten succeeding minutes not a +car passed. Perhaps it was a street-railway strike, was my +thought; or perhaps there had been an accident and the power was +shut off. But no, the silence was too profound. I heard no jar +and rattle of waggon wheels, nor stamp of iron-shod hoofs straining +up the steep cobble-stones. + +Pressing the push-button beside my bed, I strove to hear the sound +of the bell, though I well knew it was impossible for the sound to +rise three stories to me even if the bell did ring. It rang all +right, for a few minutes later Brown entered with the tray and +morning paper. Though his features were impassive as ever, I noted +a startled, apprehensive light in his eyes. I noted, also, that +there was no cream on the tray. + +"The Creamery did not deliver this morning," he explained; "nor did +the bakery." + +I glanced again at the tray. There were no fresh French rolls-- +only slices of stale graham bread from yesterday, the most +detestable of bread so far as I was concerned. + +"Nothing was delivered this morning, sir," Brown started to explain +apologetically; but I interrupted him. + +"The paper?" + +"Yes, sir, it was delivered, but it was the only thing, and it is +the last time, too. There won't be any paper to-morrow. The paper +says so. Can I send out and get you some condensed milk?" + +I shook my head, accepted the coffee black, and spread open the +paper. The headlines explained everything--explained too much, in +fact, for the lengths of pessimism to which the journal went were +ridiculous. A general strike, it said, had been called all over +the United States; and most foreboding anxieties were expressed +concerning the provisioning of the great cities. + +I read on hastily, skimming much and remembering much of labour +troubles in the past. For a generation the general strike had been +the dream of organized labour, which dream had arisen originally in +the mind of Debs, one of the great labour leaders of thirty years +before. I recollected that in my young college-settlement days I +had even written an article on the subject for one of the magazines +and that I had entitled it "The Dream of Debs." And I must confess +that I had treated the idea very cavalierly and academically as a +dream and nothing more. Time and the world had rolled on, Gompers +was gone, the American Federation of Labour was gone, and gone was +Debs with all his wild revolutionary ideas; but the dream had +persisted, and here it was at last realized in fact. But I +laughed, as I read, at the journal's gloomy outlook. I knew +better. I had seen organized labour worsted in too many conflicts. +It would be a matter only of days when the thing would be settled. +This was a national strike, and it wouldn't take the Government +long to break it. + +I threw the paper down and proceeded to dress. It would certainly +be interesting to be out in the streets of San Francisco when not a +wheel was turning and the whole city was taking an enforced +vacation. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," Brown said, as he handed me my cigar- +case, "but Mr. Harmmed has asked to see you before you go out." + +"Send him in right away," I answered. + +Harmmed was the butler. When he entered I could see he was +labouring under controlled excitement. He came at once to the +point. + +"What shall I do, sir? There will be needed provisions, and the +delivery drivers are on strike. And the electricity is shut off--I +guess they're on strike, too." + +"Are the shops open?" I asked. + +"Only the small ones, sir. The retail clerks are out, and the big +ones can't open; but the owners and their families are running the +little ones themselves." + +"Then take the machine," I said, "and go the rounds and make your +purchases. Buy plenty of everything you need or may need. Get a +box of candles--no, get half-a-dozen boxes. And, when you're done, +tell Harrison to bring the machine around to the club for me--not +later than eleven." + +Harmmed shook his head gravely. "Mr. Harrison has struck along +with the Chauffeurs' Union, and I don't know how to run the machine +myself." + +"Oh, ho, he has, has he?" said. "Well, when next Mister Harrison +happens around you tell him that he can look elsewhere for a +position." + +"Yes, sir." + +"You don't happen to belong to a Butlers' Union, do you, Harmmed?" + +"No, sir," was the answer. "And even if I did I'd not desert my +employer in a crisis like this. No, sir, I would--" + +"All right, thank you," I said. "Now you get ready to accompany +me. I'll run the machine myself, and we'll lay in a stock of +provisions to stand a siege." + +It was a beautiful first of May, even as May days go. The sky was +cloudless, there was no wind, and the air was warm--almost balmy. +Many autos were out, but the owners were driving them themselves. +The streets were crowded but quiet. The working class, dressed in +its Sunday best, was out taking the air and observing the effects +of the strike. It was all so unusual, and withal so peaceful, that +I found myself enjoying it. My nerves were tingling with mild +excitement. It was a sort of placid adventure. I passed Miss +Chickering. She was at the helm of her little runabout. She swung +around and came after me, catching me at the corner. + +"Oh, Mr. Corf!"' she hailed. "Do you know where I can buy candles? +I've been to a dozen shops, and they're all sold out. It's +dreadfully awful, isn't it?" + +But her sparkling eyes gave the lie to her words. Like the rest of +us, she was enjoying it hugely. Quite an adventure it was, getting +those candles. It was not until we went across the city and down +into the working-class quarter south of Market Street that we found +small corner groceries that had not yet sold out. Miss Chickering +thought one box was sufficient, but I persuaded her into taking +four. My car was large, and I laid in a dozen boxes. There was no +telling what delays might arise in the settlement of the strike. +Also, I filled the car with sacks of flour, baking-powder, tinned +goods, and all the ordinary necessaries of life suggested by +Harmmed, who fussed around and clucked over the purchases like an +anxious old hen. + +The remarkable thing, that first day of the strike, was that no one +really apprehended anything serious. The announcement of organized +labour in the morning papers that it was prepared to stay out a +month or three months was laughed at. And yet that very first day +we might have guessed as much from the fact that the working class +took practically no part in the great rush to buy provisions. Of +course not. For weeks and months, craftily and secretly, the whole +working class had been laying in private stocks of provisions. +That was why we were permitted to go down and buy out the little +groceries in the working-class neighbourhoods. + +It was not until I arrived at the club that afternoon that I began +to feel the first alarm. Everything was in confusion. There were +no olives for the cocktails, and the service was by hitches and +jerks. Most of the men were angry, and all were worried. A babel +of voices greeted me as I entered. General Folsom, nursing his +capacious paunch in a window-seat in the smoking-room was defending +himself against half-a-dozen excited gentlemen who were demanding +that he should do something. + +"What can I do more than I have done?" he was saying. "There are +no orders from Washington. If you gentlemen will get a wire +through I'll do anything I am commanded to do. But I don't see +what can be done. The first thing I did this morning, as soon as I +learned of the strike, was to order in the troops from the +Presidio--three thousand of them. They're guarding the banks, the +Mint, the post office, and all the public buildings. There is no +disorder whatever. The strikers are keeping the peace perfectly. +You can't expect me to shoot them down as they walk along the +streets with wives and children all in their best bib and tucker." + +"I'd like to know what's happening on Wall Street," I heard Jimmy +Wombold say as I passed along. I could imagine his anxiety, for I +knew that he was deep in the big Consolidated-Western deal. + +"Say, Corf," Atkinson bustled up to me, "is your machine running?" + +"Yes," I answered, "but what's the matter with your own?" + +"Broken down, and the garages are all closed. And my wife's +somewhere around Truckee, I think, stalled on the overland. Can't +get a wire to her for love or money. She should have arrived this +evening. She may be starving. Lend me your machine." + +"Can't get it across the bay," Halstead spoke up. "The ferries +aren't running. But I tell you what you can do. There's +Rollinson--oh, Rollinson, come here a moment. Atkinson wants to +get a machine across the bay. His wife is stuck on the overland at +Truckee. Can't you bring the Lurlette across from Tiburon and +carry the machine over for him?" + +The Lurlette was a two-hundred-ton, ocean-going schooner-yacht. + +Rollinson shook his head. "You couldn't get a longshoreman to land +the machine on board, even if I could get the Lurlette over, which +I can't, for the crew are members of the Coast Seamen's Union, and +they're on strike along with the rest." + +"But my wife may be starving," I could hear Atkinson wailing as I +moved on. + +At the other end of the smoking-room I ran into a group of men +bunched excitedly and angrily around Bertie Messener. And Bertie +was stirring them up and prodding them in his cool, cynical way. +Bertie didn't care about the strike. He didn't care much about +anything. He was blase--at least in all the clean things of life; +the nasty things had no attraction for him. He was worth twenty +millions, all of it in safe investments, and he had never done a +tap of productive work in his life--inherited it all from his +father and two uncles. He had been everywhere, seen everything, +and done everything but get married, and this last in the face of +the grim and determined attack of a few hundred ambitious mammas. +For years he had been the greatest catch, and as yet he had avoided +being caught. He was disgracefully eligible. On top of his wealth +he was young, handsome, and, as I said before, clean. He was a +great athlete, a young blond god that did everything perfectly and +admirably with the solitary exception of matrimony. And he didn't +care about anything, had no ambitions, no passions, no desire to do +the very things he did so much better than other men. + +"This is sedition!" one man in the group was crying. Another +called it revolt and revolution, and another called it anarchy. + +"I can't see it," Bertie said. "I have been out in the streets all +morning. Perfect order reigns. I never saw a more law-abiding +populace. There's no use calling it names. It's not any of those +things. It's just what it claims to be, a general strike, and it's +your turn to play, gentlemen." + +"And we'll play all right!" cried Garfield, one of the traction +millionaires. "We'll show this dirt where its place is--the +beasts! Wait till the Government takes a hand." + +"But where is the Government?" Bertie interposed. "It might as +well be at the bottom of the sea so far as you're concerned. You +don't know what's happening at Washington. You don't know whether +you've got a Government or not." + +"Don't you worry about that," Garfield blurted out. + +"I assure you I'm not worrying," Bertie smiled languidly. "But it +seems to me it's what you fellows are doing. Look in the glass, +Garfield." + +Garfield did not look, but had he looked he would have seen a very +excited gentleman with rumpled, iron-grey hair, a flushed face, +mouth sullen and vindictive, and eyes wildly gleaming. + +"It's not right, I tell you," little Hanover said; and from his +tone I was sure that he had already said it a number of times. + +"Now that's going too far, Hanover," Bertie replied. "You fellows +make me tired. You're all open-shop men. You've eroded my +eardrums with your endless gabble for the open shop and the right +of a man to work. You've harangued along those lines for years. +Labour is doing nothing wrong in going out on this general strike. +It is violating no law of God nor man. Don't you talk, Hanover. +You've been ringing the changes too long on the God-given right to +work . . . or not to work; you can't escape the corollary. It's a +dirty little sordid scrap, that's all the whole thing is. You've +got labour down and gouged it, and now labour's got you down and is +gouging you, that's all, and you're squealing." + +Every man in the group broke out in indignant denials that labour +had ever been gouged. + +"No, sir!" Garfield was shouting. "We've done the best for labour. +Instead of gouging it, we've given it a chance to live. We've made +work for it. Where would labour be if it hadn't been for us?" + +"A whole lot better off," Bertie sneered. "You've got labour down +and gouged it every time you got a chance, and you went out of your +way to make chances." + +"No! No!" were the cries. + +"There was the teamsters' strike, right here in San Francisco," +Bertie went on imperturbably. "The Employers' Association +precipitated that strike. You know that. And you know I know it, +too, for I've sat in these very rooms and heard the inside talk and +news of the fight. First you precipitated the strike, then you +bought the Mayor and the Chief of Police and broke the strike. A +pretty spectacle, you philanthropists getting the teamsters down +and gouging them. + +"Hold on, I'm not through with you. It's only last year that the +labour ticket of Colorado elected a governor. He was never seated. +You know why. You know how your brother philanthropists and +capitalists of Colorado worked it. It was a case of getting labour +down and gouging it. You kept the president of the South-western +Amalgamated Association of Miners in jail for three years on +trumped-up murder charges, and with him out of the way you broke up +the association. That was gouging labour, you'll admit. The third +time the graduated income tax was declared unconstitutional was a +gouge. So was the eight-hour Bill you killed in the last Congress. + +"And of all unmitigated immoral gouges, your destruction of the +closed-shop principle was the limit. You know how it was done. You +bought out Farburg, the last president of the old American +Federation of Labour. He was your creature--or the creature of all +the trusts and employers' associations, which is the same thing. +You precipitated the big closed-shop strike. Farburg betrayed that +strike. You won, and the old American Federation of Labour +crumbled to pieces. You follows destroyed it, and by so doing +undid yourselves; for right on top of it began the organization of +the I.L.W.--the biggest and solidest organization of labour the +United States has ever seen, and you are responsible for its +existence and for the present general strike. You smashed all the +old federations and drove labour into the I.L.W., and the I.L.W. +called the general strike--still fighting for the closed shop. And +then you have the effrontery to stand here face to face and tell me +that you never got labour down and gouged it. Bah!" + +This time there were no denials. Garfield broke out in self- +defence-- + +"We've done nothing we were not compelled to do, if we were to +win." + +"I'm not saying anything about that," Bertie answered. "What I am +complaining about is your squealing now that you're getting a taste +of your own medicine. How many strikes have you won by starving +labour into submission? Well, labour's worked out a scheme whereby +to starve you into submission. It wants the closed shop, and, if +it can get it by starving you, why, starve you shall." + +"I notice that you have profited in the past by those very labour +gouges you mention," insinuated Brentwood, one of the wiliest and +most astute of our corporation lawyers. "The receiver is as bad as +the thief," he sneered. "You had no hand in the gouging, but you +took your whack out of the gouge." + +"That is quite beside the question, Brentwood," Bertie drawled. +"You're as bad as Hanover, intruding the moral element. I haven't +said that anything is right or wrong. It's all a rotten game, I +know; and my sole kick is that you fellows are squealing now that +you're down and labour's taking a gouge out of you. Of course I've +taken the profits from the gouging and, thanks to you, gentlemen, +without having personally to do the dirty work. You did that for +me--oh, believe me, not because I am more virtuous than you, but +because my good father and his various brothers left me a lot of +money with which to pay for the dirty work." + +"If you mean to insinuate--" Brentwood began hotly. + +"Hold on, don't get all-ruffled up," Bertie interposed insolently. +"There's no use in playing hypocrites in this thieves' den. The +high and lofty is all right for the newspapers, boys' clubs, and +Sunday schools--that's part of the game; but for heaven's sake +don't let's play it on one another. You know, and you know that I +know just what jobbery was done in the building trades' strike last +fall, who put up the money, who did the work, and who profited by +it." (Brentwood flushed darkly.) "But we are all tarred with the +same brush, and the best thing for us to do is to leave morality +out of it. Again I repeat, play the game, play it to the last +finish, but for goodness' sake don't squeal when you get hurt." + +When I left the group Bertie was off on a new tack tormenting them +with the more serious aspects of the situation, pointing out the +shortage of supplies that was already making itself felt, and +asking them what they were going to do about it. A little later I +met him in the cloak-room, leaving, and gave him a lift home in my +machine. + +"It's a great stroke, this general strike," he said, as we bowled +along through the crowded but orderly streets. "It's a smashing +body-blow. Labour caught us napping and struck at our weakest +place, the stomach. I'm going to get out of San Francisco, Corf. +Take my advice and get out, too. Head for the country, anywhere. +You'll have more chance. Buy up a stock of supplies and get into a +tent or a cabin somewhere. Soon there'll be nothing but starvation +in this city for such as we." + +How correct Bertie Messener was I never dreamed. I decided that he +was an alarmist. As for myself, I was content to remain and watch +the fun. After I dropped him, instead of going directly home, I +went on in a hunt for more food. To my surprise, I learned that +the small groceries where I had bought in the morning were sold +out. I extended my search to the Potrero, and by good luck managed +to pick up another box of candles, two sacks of wheat flour, ten +pounds of graham flour (which would do for the servants), a case of +tinned corn, and two cases of tinned tomatoes. It did look as +though there was going to be at least a temporary food shortage, +and I hugged myself over the goodly stock of provisions I had laid +in. + +The next morning I had my coffee in bed as usual, and, more than +the cream, I missed the daily paper. It was this absence of +knowledge of what was going on in the world that I found the chief +hardship. Down at the club there was little news. Rider had +crossed from Oakland in his launch, and Halstead had been down to +San Jose and back in his machine. They reported the same +conditions in those places as in San Francisco. Everything was +tied up by the strike. All grocery stocks had been bought out by +the upper classes. And perfect order reigned. But what was +happening over the rest of the country--in Chicago? New York? +Washington? Most probably the same things that were happening with +us, we concluded; but the fact that we did not know with absolute +surety was irritating. + +General Folsom had a bit of news. An attempt had been made to +place army telegraphers in the telegraph offices, but the wires had +been cut in every direction. This was, so far, the one unlawful +act committed by labour, and that it was a concerted act he was +fully convinced. He had communicated by wireless with the army +post at Benicia, the telegraph lines were even then being patrolled +by soldiers all the way to Sacramento. Once, for one short +instant, they had got the Sacramento call, then the wires, +somewhere, were cut again. General Folsom reasoned that similar +attempts to open communication were being made by the authorities +all the way across the continent, but he was non-committal as to +whether or not he thought the attempt would succeed. What worried +him was the wire-cutting; he could not but believe that it was an +important part of the deep-laid labour conspiracy. Also, he +regretted that the Government had not long since established its +projected chain of wireless stations. + +The days came and went, and for a while it was a humdrum time. +Nothing happened. The edge of excitement had become blunted. The +streets were not so crowded. The working class did not come uptown +any more to see how we were taking the strike. And there were not +so many automobiles running around. The repair-shops and garages +were closed, and whenever a machine broke down it went out of +commission. The clutch on mine broke, and neither love nor money +could get it repaired. Like the rest, I was now walking. San +Francisco lay dead, and we did not know what was happening over the +rest of the country. But from the very fact that we did not know +we could conclude only that the rest of the country lay as dead as +San Francisco. From time to time the city was placarded with the +proclamations of organized labour--these had been printed months +before, and evidenced how thoroughly the I.L.W. had prepared for +the strike. Every detail had been worked out long in advance. No +violence had occurred as yet, with the exception of the shooting of +a few wire-cutters by the soldiers, but the people of the slums +were starving and growing ominously restless. + +The business men, the millionaires, and the professional class held +meetings and passed resolutions, but there was no way of making the +proclamations public. They could not even get them printed. One +result of these meetings, however, was that General Folsom was +persuaded into taking military possession of the wholesale houses +and of all the flour, grain, and food warehouses. It was high +time, for suffering was becoming acute in the homes of the rich, +and bread-lines were necessary. I knew that my servants were +beginning to draw long faces, and it was amazing--the hole they +made in my stock of provisions. In fact, as I afterward surmised, +each servant was stealing from me and secreting a private stock of +provisions for himself. + +But with the formation of the bread-lines came new troubles. There +was only so much of a food reserve in San Francisco, and at the +best it could not last long. Organized labour, we knew, had its +private supplies; nevertheless, the whole working class joined the +bread-lines. As a result, the provisions General Folsom had taken +possession of diminished with perilous rapidity. How were the +soldiers to distinguish between a shabby middle-class man, a member +of the I.L.W., or a slum dweller? The first and the last had to be +fed, but the soldiers did not know all the I.L.W. men in the city, +much less the wives and sons and daughters of the I.L.W. men. The +employers helping, a few of the known union men were flung out of +the bread-lines; but that amounted to nothing. To make matters +worse, the Government tugs that had been hauling food from the army +depots on Mare Island to Angel Island found no more food to haul. +The soldiers now received their rations from the confiscated +provisions, and they received them first. + +The beginning of the end was in sight. Violence was beginning to +show its face. Law and order were passing away, and passing away, +I must confess, among the slum people and the upper classes. +Organized labour still maintained perfect order. It could well +afford to--it had plenty to eat. I remember the afternoon at the +club when I caught Halstead and Brentwood whispering in a corner. +They took me in on the venture. Brentwood's machine was still in +running order, and they were going out cow-stealing. Halstead had +a long butcher knife and a cleaver. We went out to the outskirts +of the city. Here and there were cows grazing, but always they +were guarded by their owners. We pursued our quest, following +along the fringe of the city to the east, and on the hills near +Hunter's Point we came upon a cow guarded by a little girl. There +was also a young calf with the cow. We wasted no time on +preliminaries. The little girl ran away screaming, while we +slaughtered the cow. I omit the details, for they are not nice--we +were unaccustomed to such work, and we bungled it. + +But in the midst of it, working with the haste of fear, we heard +cries, and we saw a number of men running toward us. We abandoned +the spoils and took to our heels. To our surprise we were not +pursued. Looking back, we saw the men hurriedly cutting up the +cow. They had been on the same lay as ourselves. We argued that +there was plenty for all, and ran back. The scene that followed +beggars description. We fought and squabbled over the division +like savages. Brentwood, I remember, was a perfect brute, snarling +and snapping and threatening that murder would be done if we did +not get our proper share. + +And we were getting our share when there occurred a new irruption +on the scene. This time it was the dreaded peace officers of the +I.L.W. The little girl had brought them. They were armed with +whips and clubs, and there were a score of them. The little girl +danced up and down in anger, the tears streaming down her cheeks, +crying: "Give it to 'em! Give it to 'em! That guy with the +specs--he did it! Mash his face for him! Mash his face!" That +guy with the specs was I, and I got my face mashed, too, though I +had the presence of mind to take off my glasses at the first. My! +but we did receive a trouncing as we scattered in all directions. +Brentwood, Halstead, and I fled away for the machine. Brentwood's +nose was bleeding, while Halstead's cheek was cut across with the +scarlet slash of a black-snake whip. + +And, lo, when the pursuit ceased and we had gained the machine, +there, hiding behind it, was the frightened calf. Brentwood warned +us to be cautious, and crept up on it like a wolf or tiger. Knife +and cleaver had been left behind, but Brentwood still had his +hands, and over and over on the ground he rolled with the poor +little calf as he throttled it. We threw the carcass into the +machine, covered it over with a robe, and started for home. But +our misfortunes had only begun. We blew out a tyre. There was no +way of fixing it, and twilight was coming on. We abandoned the +machine, Brentwood pulling and staggering along in advance, the +calf, covered by the robe, slung across his shoulders. We took +turn about carrying that calf, and it nearly killed us. Also, we +lost our way. And then, after hours of wandering and toil, we +encountered a gang of hoodlums. They were not I.L.W. men, and I +guess they were as hungry as we. At any rate, they got the calf +and we got the thrashing. Brentwood raged like a madman the rest +of the way home, and he looked like one, with his torn clothes, +swollen nose, and blackened eyes. + +There wasn't any more cow-stealing after that. General Folsom sent +his troopers out and confiscated all the cows, and his troopers, +aided by the militia, ate most of the meat. General Folsom was not +to be blamed; it was his duty to maintain law and order, and he +maintained it by means of the soldiers, wherefore he was compelled +to feed them first of all. + +It was about this time that the great panic occurred. The wealthy +classes precipitated the flight, and then the slum people caught +the contagion and stampeded wildly out of the city. General Folsom +was pleased. It was estimated that at least 200,000 had deserted +San Francisco, and by that much was his food problem solved. Well +do I remember that day. In the morning I had eaten a crust of +bread. Half of the afternoon I had stood in the bread-line; and +after dark I returned home, tired and miserable, carrying a quart +of rice and a slice of bacon. Brown met me at the door. His face +was worn and terrified. All the servants had fled, he informed me. +He alone remained. I was touched by his faithfulness and, when I +learned that he had eaten nothing all day, I divided my food with +him. We cooked half the rice and half the bacon, sharing it +equally and reserving the other half for morning. I went to bed +with my hunger, and tossed restlessly all night. In the morning I +found Brown had deserted me, and, greater misfortune still, he had +stolen what remained of the rice and bacon. + +It was a gloomy handful of men that came together at the club that +morning. There was no service at all. The last servant was gone. +I noticed, too, that the silver was gone, and I learned where it +had gone. The servants had not taken it, for the reason, I +presume, that the club members got to it first. Their method of +disposing of it was simple. Down south of Market Street, in the +dwellings of the I.L.W., the housewives had given square meals in +exchange for it. I went back to my house. Yes, my silver was +gone--all but a massive pitcher. This I wrapped up and carried +down south of Market Street. + +I felt better after the meal, and returned to the club to learn if +there was anything new in the situation. Hanover, Collins, and +Dakon were just leaving. There was no one inside, they told me, +and they invited me to come along with them. They were leaving the +city, they said, on Dakon's horses, and there was a spare one for +me. Dakon had four magnificent carriage horses that he wanted to +save, and General Folsom had given him the tip that next morning +all the horses that remained in the city were to be confiscated for +food. There were not many horses left, for tens of thousands of +them had been turned loose into the country when the hay and grain +gave out during the first days. Birdall, I remember, who had great +draying interests, had turned loose three hundred dray horses. At +an average value of five hundred dollars, this had amounted to +$150,000. He had hoped, at first, to recover most of the horses +after the strike was over, but in the end he never recovered one of +them. They were all eaten by the people that fled from San +Francisco. For that matter, the killing of the army mules and +horses for food had already begun. + +Fortunately for Dakon, he had had a plentiful supply of hay and +grain stored in his stable. We managed to raise four saddles, and +we found the animals in good condition and spirited, withal unused +to being ridden. I remembered the San Francisco of the great +earthquake as we rode through the streets, but this San Francisco +was vastly more pitiable. No cataclysm of nature had caused this, +but, rather, the tyranny of the labour unions. We rode down past +Union Square and through the theatre, hotel, and shopping +districts. The streets were deserted. Here and there stood +automobiles, abandoned where they had broken down or when the +gasolene had given out. There was no sign of life, save for the +occasional policemen and the soldiers guarding the banks and public +buildings. Once we came upon an I.L.W. man pasting up the latest +proclamation. We stopped to read. "We have maintained an orderly +strike," it ran; "and we shall maintain order to the end. The end +will come when our demands are satisfied, and our demands will be +satisfied when we have starved our employers into submission, as we +ourselves in the past have often been starved into submission." + +"Messener's very words," Collins said. "And I, for one, am ready +to submit, only they won't give me a chance to submit. I haven't +had a full meal in an age. I wonder what horse-meat tastes like?" + +We stopped to read another proclamation: "When we think our +employers are ready to submit we shall open up the telegraphs and +place the employers' associations of the United States in +communication. But only messages relating to peace terms shall be +permitted over the wires." + +We rode on, crossed Market Street, and a little later were passing +through the working-class district. Here the streets were not +deserted. Leaning over the gates or standing in groups were the +I.L.W. men. Happy, well-fed children were playing games, and stout +housewives sat on the front steps gossiping. One and all cast +amused glances at us. Little children ran after us, crying: "Hey, +mister, ain't you hungry?" And one woman, nursing a child at her +breast, called to Dakon: "Say, Fatty, I'll give you a meal for +your skate--ham and potatoes, currant jelly, white bread, canned +butter, and two cups of coffee." + +"Have you noticed, the last few days," Hanover remarked to me, +"that there's not been a stray dog in the streets?" + +I had noticed, but I had not thought about it before. It was high +time to leave the unfortunate city. We at last managed to connect +with the San Bruno Road, along which we headed south. I had a +country place near Menlo, and it was our objective. But soon we +began to discover that the country was worse off and far more +dangerous than the city. There the soldiers and the I.L.W. kept +order; but the country had been turned over to anarchy. Two +hundred thousand people had fled from San Francisco, and we had +countless evidences that their flight had been like that of an army +of locusts. + +They had swept everything clean. There had been robbery and +fighting. Here and there we passed bodies by the roadside and saw +the blackened ruins of farm-houses. The fences were down, and the +crops had been trampled by the feet of a multitude. All the +vegetable patches had been rooted up by the famished hordes. All +the chickens and farm animals had been slaughtered. This was true +of all the main roads that led out of San Francisco. Here and +there, away from the roads, farmers had held their own with +shotguns and revolvers, and were still holding their own. They +warned us away and refused to parley with us. And all the +destruction and violence had been done by the slum-dwellers and the +upper classes. The I.L.W. men, with plentiful food supplies, +remained quietly in their homes in the cities. + +Early in the ride we received concrete proof of how desperate was +the situation. To the right of us we heard cries and rifle-shots. +Bullets whistled dangerously near. There was a crashing in the +underbrush; then a magnificent black truck-horse broke across the +road in front of us and was gone. We had barely time to notice +that he was bleeding and lame. He was followed by three soldiers. +The chase went on among the trees on the left. We could hear the +soldiers calling to one another. A fourth soldier limped out upon +the road from the right, sat down on a boulder, and mopped the +sweat from his face. + +"Militia," Dakon whispered. "Deserters." + +The man grinned up at us and asked for a match. In reply to +Dakon's "What's the word?" he informed us that the militiamen were +deserting. "No grub," he explained. "They're feedin' it all to +the regulars." We also learned from him that the military +prisoners had been released from Alcatraz Island because they could +no longer be fed. + +I shall never forget the next sight we encountered. We came upon +it abruptly around a turn of the road. Overhead arched the trees. +The sunshine was filtering down through the branches. Butterflies +were fluttering by, and from the fields came the song of larks. +And there it stood, a powerful touring car. About it and in it lay +a number of corpses. It told its own tale. Its occupants, fleeing +from the city, had been attacked and dragged down by a gang of slum +dwellers--hoodlums. The thing had occurred within twenty-four +hours. Freshly opened meat and fruit tins explained the reason for +the attack. Dakon examined the bodies. + +"I thought so," he reported. "I've ridden in that car. It was +Perriton--the whole family. We've got to watch out for ourselves +from now on." + +"But we have no food with which to invite attack," I objected. + +Dakon pointed to the horse I rode, and I understood. + +Early in the day Dakon's horse had cast a shoe. The delicate hoof +had split, and by noon the animal was limping. Dakon refused to +ride it farther, and refused to desert it. So, on his +solicitation, we went on. He would lead the horse and join us at +my place. That was the last we saw of him; nor did we ever learn +his end. + +By one o'clock we arrived at the town of Menlo, or, rather, at the +site of Menlo, for it was in ruins. Corpses lay everywhere. The +business part of the town, as well as part of the residences, had +been gutted by fire. Here and there a residence still held out; +but there was no getting near them. When we approached too closely +we were fired upon. We met a woman who was poking about in the +smoking ruins of her cottage. The first attack, she told us had +been on the stores, and as she talked we could picture that raging, +roaring, hungry mob flinging itself on the handful of townspeople. +Millionaires and paupers had fought side by side for the food, and +then fought with one another after they got it. The town of Palo +Alto and Stanford University had been sacked in similar fashion, we +learned. Ahead of us lay a desolate, wasted land; and we thought +we were wise in turning off to my place. It lay three miles to the +west, snuggling among the first rolling swells of the foothills. + +But as we rode along we saw that the devastation was not confined +to the main roads. The van of the flight had kept to the roads, +sacking the small towns as it went; while those that followed had +scattered out and swept the whole countryside like a great broom. +My place was built of concrete, masonry, and tiles, and so had +escaped being burned, but it was gutted clean. We found the +gardener's body in the windmill, littered around with empty shot- +gun shells. He had put up a good fight. But no trace could we +find of the two Italian labourers, nor of the house-keeper and her +husband. Not a live thing remained. The calves, the colts, all +the fancy poultry and thoroughbred stock, everything, was gone. +The kitchen and the fireplaces, where the mob had cooked, were a +mess, while many camp-fires outside bore witness to the large +number that had fed and spent the night. What they had not eaten +they had carried away. There was not a bite for us. + +We spent the rest of the night vainly waiting for Dakon, and in the +morning, with our revolvers, fought off half-a-dozen marauders. +Then we killed one of Dakon's horses, hiding for the future what +meat we did not immediately eat. In the afternoon Collins went out +for a walk, but failed to return. This was the last straw to +Hanover. He was for flight there and then, and I had great +difficulty in persuading him to wait for daylight. As for myself, +I was convinced that the end of the general strike was near, and I +was resolved to return to San Francisco. So, in the morning, we +parted company, Hanover heading south, fifty pounds of horse-meat +strapped to his saddle, while I, similarly loaded, headed north. +Little Hanover pulled through all right, and to the end of his life +he will persist, I know, in boring everybody with the narrative of +his subsequent adventures. + +I got as far as Belmont, on the main road back, when I was robbed +of my horse-meat by three militiamen. There was no change in the +situation, they said, except that it was going from bad to worse. +The I.L.W. had plenty of provisions hidden away and could last out +for months. I managed to get as far as Baden, when my horse was +taken away from me by a dozen men. Two of them were San Francisco +policemen, and the remainder were regular soldiers. This was +ominous. The situation was certainly extreme when the regulars +were beginning to desert. When I continued my way on foot, they +already had the fire started, and the last of Dakon's horses lay +slaughtered on the ground. + +As luck would have it, I sprained my ankle, and succeeded in +getting no farther than South San Francisco. I lay there that +night in an out-house, shivering with the cold and at the same time +burning with fever. Two days I lay there, too sick to move, and on +the third, reeling and giddy, supporting myself on an extemporized +crutch, I tottered on toward San Francisco. I was weak as well, +for it was the third day since food had passed my lips. It was a +day of nightmare and torment. As in a dream I passed hundreds of +regular soldiers drifting along in the opposite direction, and many +policemen, with their families, organized in large groups for +mutual protection. + +As I entered the city I remembered the workman's house at which I +had traded the silver pitcher, and in that direction my hunger +drove me. Twilight was falling when I came to the place. I passed +around by the alleyway and crawled up the black steps, on which I +collapsed. I managed to reach out with the crutch and knock on the +door. Then I must have fainted, for I came to in the kitchen, my +face wet with water, and whisky being poured down my throat. I +choked and spluttered and tried to talk. I began saying something +about not having any more silver pitchers, but that I would make it +up to them afterward if they would only give me something to eat. +But the housewife interrupted me. + +"Why, you poor man," she said, "haven't you heard? The strike was +called off this afternoon. Of course we'll give you something to +eat." + +She bustled around, opening a tin of breakfast bacon and preparing +to fry it. + +"Let me have some now, please," I begged; and I ate the raw bacon +on a slice of bread, while her husband explained that the demands +of the I.L.W. had been granted. The wires had been opened up in +the early afternoon, and everywhere the employers' associations had +given in. There hadn't been any employers left in San Francisco, +but General Folsom had spoken for them. The trains and steamers +would start running in the morning, and so would everything else +just as soon as system could be established. + +And that was the end of the general strike. I never want to see +another one. It was worse than a war. A general strike is a cruel +and immoral thing, and the brain of man should be capable of +running industry in a more rational way. Harrison is still my +chauffeur. It was part of the conditions of the I.L.W. that all of +its members should be reinstated in their old positions. Brown +never came back, but the rest of the servants are with me. I +hadn't the heart to discharge them--poor creatures, they were +pretty hard-pressed when they deserted with the food and silver. +And now I can't discharge them. They have all been unionized by +the I.L.W. The tyranny of organized labour is getting beyond human +endurance. Something must be done. + + + +THE SEA-FARMER + + + +"That wull be the doctor's launch," said Captain MacElrath. + +The pilot grunted, while the skipper swept on with his glass from +the launch to the strip of beach and to Kingston beyond, and then +slowly across the entrance to Howth Head on the northern side. + +"The tide's right, and we'll have you docked in two hours," the +pilot vouchsafed, with an effort at cheeriness. "Ring's End Basin, +is it?" + +This time the skipper grunted. + +"A dirty Dublin day." + +Again the skipper grunted. He was weary with the night of wind in +the Irish Channel behind him, the unbroken hours of which he had +spent on the bridge. And he was weary with all the voyage behind +him--two years and four months between home port and home port, +eight hundred and fifty days by his log. + +"Proper wunter weather," he answered, after a silence. "The town +is undistinct. Ut wull be rainun' guid an' hearty for the day." + +Captain MacElrath was a small man, just comfortably able to peep +over the canvas dodger of the bridge. The pilot and third officer +loomed above him, as did the man at the wheel, a bulky German, +deserted from a warship, whom he had signed on in Rangoon. But his +lack of inches made Captain MacElrath a no less able man. At least +so the Company reckoned, and so would he have reckoned could he +have had access to the carefully and minutely compiled record of +him filed away in the office archives. But the Company had never +given him a hint of its faith in him. It was not the way of the +Company, for the Company went on the principle of never allowing an +employee to think himself indispensable or even exceedingly useful; +wherefore, while quick to censure, it never praised. What was +Captain MacElrath, anyway, save a skipper, one skipper of the +eighty-odd skippers that commanded the Company's eighty-odd +freighters on all the highways and byways of the sea? + +Beneath them, on the main deck, two Chinese stokers were carrying +breakfast for'ard across the rusty iron plates that told their own +grim story of weight and wash of sea. A sailor was taking down the +life-line that stretched from the forecastle, past the hatches and +cargo-winches, to the bridge-deck ladder. + +"A rough voyage," suggested the pilot. + +"Aye, she was fair smokin' ot times, but not thot I minded thot so +much as the lossin' of time. I hate like onythun' tull loss time." + +So saying, Captain MacElrath turned and glanced aft, aloft and +alow, and the pilot, following his gaze, saw the mute but +convincing explanation of that loss of time. The smoke-stack, +buff-coloured underneath, was white with salt, while the whistle- +pipe glittered crystalline in the random sunlight that broke for +the instant through a cloud-rift. The port lifeboat was missing, +its iron davits, twisted and wrenched, testifying to the mightiness +of the blow that had been struck the old Tryapsic. The starboard +davits were also empty. The shattered wreck of the lifeboat they +had held lay on the fiddley beside the smashed engine-room +skylight, which was covered by a tarpaulin. Below, to star-board, +on the bridge deck, the pilot saw the crushed mess-room door, +roughly bulkheaded against the pounding seas. Abreast of it, on +the smokestack guys, and being taken down by the bos'n and a +sailor, hung the huge square of rope netting which had failed to +break those seas of their force. + +"Twice afore I mentioned thot door tull the owners," said Captain +MacElrath. "But they said ut would do. There was bug seas thot +time. They was uncreditable bug. And thot buggest one dud the +domage. Ut fair carried away the door an' laid ut flat on the mess +table an' smashed out the chief's room. He was a but sore about +ut." + +"It must 'a' been a big un," the pilot remarked sympathetically. + +"Aye, ut was thot. Thungs was lively for a but. Ut finished the +mate. He was on the brudge wuth me, an' I told hum tull take a +look tull the wedges o' number one hatch. She was takin' watter +freely an' I was no sure o' number one. I dudna like the look o' +ut, an' I was fuggerin' maybe tull heave to tull the marn, when she +took ut over abaft the brudge. My word, she was a bug one. We got +a but of ut ourselves on the brudge. I dudna miss the mate ot the +first, what o' routin' out Chips an' bulkheadun' thot door an' +stretchun' the tarpaulin over the sky-light. Then he was nowhere +to be found. The men ot the wheel said as he seen hum goin' down +the lodder just afore she hut us. We looked for'ard, we looked +tull hus room, aye looked tull the engine-room, an' we looked along +aft on the lower deck, and there he was, on both sides the cover to +the steam-pipe runnun' tull the after-wunches." + +The pilot ejaculated an oath of amazement and horror. + +"Aye," the skipper went on wearily, "an' on both sides the steam- +pipe uz well. I tell ye he was in two pieces, splut clean uz a +herrin'. The sea must a-caught hum on the upper brudge deck, +carried hum clean across the fiddley, an' banged hum head-on tull +the pipe cover. It sheered through hum like so much butter, down +atween the eyes, an' along the middle of hum, so that one leg an' +arm was fast tull the one piece of hum, an' one leg an' arm fast +tull the other piece of hum. I tull ye ut was fair grewsome. We +putt hum together an' rolled hum in canvas uz we pulled hum out." + +The pilot swore again. + +"Oh, ut wasna onythun' tull greet about," Captain MacElrath assured +him. "'Twas a guid ruddance. He was no a sailor, thot mate- +fellow. He was only fut for a pugsty, an' a dom puir apology for +thot same." + +It is said that there are three kinds of Irish--Catholic, +Protestant, and North-of-Ireland--and that the North-of-Ireland +Irishman is a transplanted Scotchman. Captain MacElrath was a +North-of-Ireland man, and, talking for much of the world like a +Scotchman, nothing aroused his ire quicker than being mistaken for +a Scotchman. Irish he stoutly was, and Irish he stoutly abided, +though it was with a faint lip-lift of scorn that he mentioned mere +South-of-Ireland men, or even Orange-men. Himself he was +Presbyterian, while in his own community five men were all that +ever mustered at a meeting in the Orange Men's Hall. His community +was the Island McGill, where seven thousand of his kind lived in +such amity and sobriety that in the whole island there was but one +policeman and never a public-house at all. + +Captain MacElrath did not like the sea, and had never liked it. He +wrung his livelihood from it, and that was all the sea was, the +place where he worked, as the mill, the shop, and the counting- +house were the places where other men worked. Romance never sang +to him her siren song, and Adventure had never shouted in his +sluggish blood. He lacked imagination. The wonders of the deep +were without significance to him. Tornadoes, hurricanes, +waterspouts, and tidal waves were so many obstacles to the way of a +ship on the sea and of a master on the bridge--they were that to +him, and nothing more. He had seen, and yet not seen, the many +marvels and wonders of far lands. Under his eyelids burned the +brazen glories of the tropic seas, or ached the bitter gales of the +North Atlantic or far South Pacific; but his memory of them was of +mess-room doors stove in, of decks awash and hatches threatened, of +undue coal consumption, of long passages, and of fresh paint-work +spoiled by unexpected squalls of rain. + +"I know my buzz'ness," was the way he often put it, and beyond his +business was all that he did not know, all that he had seen with +the mortal eyes of him and yet that he never dreamed existed. That +he knew his business his owners were convinced, or at forty he +would not have held command of the Tryapsic, three thousand tons +net register, with a cargo capacity of nine thousand tons and +valued at fifty-thousand pounds. + +He had taken up seafaring through no love of it, but because it had +been his destiny, because he had been the second son of his father +instead of the first. Island McGill was only so large, and the +land could support but a certain definite proportion of those that +dwelt upon it. The balance, and a large balance it was, was driven +to the sea to seek its bread. It had been so for generations. The +eldest sons took the farms from their fathers; to the other sons +remained the sea and its salt-ploughing. So it was that Donald +MacElrath, farmer's son and farm-boy himself, had shifted from the +soil he loved to the sea he hated and which it was his destiny to +farm. And farmed it he had, for twenty years, shrewd, cool-headed, +sober, industrious, and thrifty, rising from ship's boy and +forecastle hand to mate and master of sailing-ships and thence into +steam, second officer, first, and master, from small command to +larger, and at last to the bridge of the old Tryapsic--old, to be +sure, but worth her fifty thousand pounds and still able to bear up +in all seas, and weather her nine thousand tons of freight. + +From the bridge of the Tryapsic, the high place he had gained in +the competition of men, he stared at Dublin harbour opening out, at +the town obscured by the dark sky of the dreary wind-driven day, +and at the tangled tracery of spars and rigging of the harbour +shipping. Back from twice around the world he was, and from +interminable junketings up and down on far stretches, home-coming +to the wife he had not seen in eight-and-twenty months, and to the +child he had never seen and that was already walking and talking. +He saw the watch below of stokers and trimmers bobbing out of the +forecastle doors like rabbits from a warren and making their way +aft over the rusty deck to the mustering of the port doctor. They +were Chinese, with expressionless, Sphinx-like faces, and they +walked in peculiar shambling fashion, dragging their feet as if the +clumsy brogans were too heavy for their lean shanks. + +He saw them and he did not see them, as he passed his hand beneath +his visored cap and scratched reflectively his mop of sandy hair. +For the scene before him was but the background in his brain for +the vision of peace that was his--a vision that was his often +during long nights on the bridge when the old Tryapsic wallowed on +the vexed ocean floor, her decks awash, her rigging thrumming in +the gale gusts or snow squalls or driving tropic rain. And the +vision he saw was of farm and farm-house and straw-thatched +outbuildings, of children playing in the sun, and the good wife at +the door, of lowing kine, and clucking fowls, and the stamp of +horses in the stable, of his father's farm next to him, with, +beyond, the woodless, rolling land and the hedged fields, neat and +orderly, extending to the crest of the smooth, soft hills. It was +his vision and his dream, his Romance and Adventure, the goal of +all his effort, the high reward for the salt-ploughing and the +long, long furrows he ran up and down the whole world around in his +farming of the sea. + +In simple taste and homely inclination this much-travelled map was +more simple and homely than the veriest yokel. Seventy-one years +his father was, and had never slept a night out of his own bed in +his own house on Island McGill. That was the life ideal, so +Captain MacElrath considered, and he was prone to marvel that any +man, not under compulsion, should leave a farm to go to sea. To +this much-travelled man the whole world was as familiar as the +village to the cobbler sitting in his shop. To Captain MacElrath +the world was a village. In his mind's eye he saw its streets a +thousand leagues long, aye, and longer; turnings that doubled +earth's stormiest headlands or were the way to quiet inland ponds; +cross-roads, taken one way, that led to flower-lands and summer +seas, and that led the other way to bitter, ceaseless gales and the +perilous bergs of the great west wind drift. And the cities, +bright with lights, were as shops on these long streets--shops +where business was transacted, where bunkers were replenished, +cargoes taken or shifted, and orders received from the owners in +London town to go elsewhere and beyond, ever along the long sea- +lanes, seeking new cargoes here, carrying new cargoes there, +running freights wherever shillings and pence beckoned and +underwriters did not forbid. But it was all a weariness to +contemplate, and, save that he wrung from it his bread, it was +without profit under the sun. + +The last good-bye to the wife had been at Cardiff, twenty-eight +months before, when he sailed for Valparaiso with coals--nine +thousand tons and down to his marks. From Valparaiso he had gone +to Australia, light, a matter of six thousand miles on end with a +stormy passage and running short of bunker coal. Coals again to +Oregon, seven thousand miles, and nigh as many more with general +cargo for Japan and China. Thence to Java, loading sugar for +Marseilles, and back along the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, and +on to Baltimore, down to her marks with crome ore, buffeted by +hurricanes, short again of bunker coal and calling at Bermuda to +replenish. Then a time charter, Norfolk, Virginia, loading +mysterious contraband coal and sailing for South Africa under +orders of the mysterious German supercargo put on board by the +charterers. On to Madagascar, steaming four knots by the +supercargo's orders, and the suspicion forming that the Russian +fleet might want the coal. Confusion and delays, long waits at +sea, international complications, the whole world excited over the +old Tryapsic and her cargo of contraband, and then on to Japan and +the naval port of Sassebo. Back to Australia, another time charter +and general merchandise picked up at Sydney, Melbourne, and +Adelaide, and carried on to Mauritius, Lourenco Marques, Durban, +Algoa Bay, and Cape Town. To Ceylon for orders, and from Ceylon to +Rangoon to load rice for Rio Janeiro. Thence to Buenos Aires and +loading maize for the United Kingdom or the Continent, stopping at +St. Vincent, to receive orders to proceed to Dublin. Two years and +four months, eight hundred and fifty days by the log, steaming up +and down the thousand-league-long sea-lanes and back again to +Dublin town. And he was well aweary. + +A little tug had laid hold of the Tryapsic, and with clang and +clatter and shouted command, with engines half-ahead, slow-speed, +or half-astern, the battered old sea-tramp was nudged and nosed and +shouldered through the dock-gates into Ring's End Basin. Lines +were flung ashore, fore and aft, and a 'midship spring got out. +Already a small group of the happy shore-staying folk had clustered +on the dock. + +"Ring off," Captain MacElrath commanded in his slow thick voice; +and the third officer worked the lever of the engine-room +telegraph. + +"Gangway out!" called the second officer; and when this was +accomplished, "That will do." + +It was the last task of all, gangway out. "That will do" was the +dismissal. The voyage was ended, and the crew shambled eagerly +forward across the rusty decks to where their sea-bags were packed +and ready for the shore. The taste of the land was strong in the +men's mouths, and strong it was in the skipper's mouth as he +muttered a gruff good day to the departing pilot, and himself went +down to his cabin. Up the gangway were trooping the customs +officers, the surveyor, the agent's clerk, and the stevedores. +Quick work disposed of these and cleared his cabin, the agent +waiting to take him to the office. + +"Dud ye send word tull the wife?" had been his greeting to the +clerk. + +"Yes, a telegram, as soon as you were reported." + +"She'll likely be comin' down on the marnin' train," the skipper +had soliloquized, and gone inside to change his clothes and wash. + +He took a last glance about the room and at two photographs on the +wall, one of the wife the other of an infant--the child he had +never seen. He stepped out into the cabin, with its panelled walls +of cedar and maple, and with its long table that seated ten, and at +which he had eaten by himself through all the weary time. No +laughter and clatter and wordy argument of the mess-room had been +his. He had eaten silently, almost morosely, his silence emulated +by the noiseless Asiatic who had served him. It came to him +suddenly, the overwhelming realization of the loneliness of those +two years and more. All his vexations and anxieties had been his +own. He had shared them with no one. His two young officers were +too young and flighty, the mate too stupid. There was no +consulting with them. One tenant had shared the cabin with him, +that tenant his responsibility. They had dined and supped +together, walked the bridge together, and together they had bedded. + +"Och!" he muttered to that grim companion, "I'm quit of you, an' +wull quit . . . for a wee." + +Ashore he passed the last of the seamen with their bags, and, at +the agent's, with the usual delays, put through his ship business. +When asked out by them to drink he took milk and soda. + +"I am no teetotaler," he explained; "but for the life o' me I canna +bide beer or whusky." + +In the early afternoon, when he finished paying off his crew, he +hurried to the private office where he had been told his wife was +waiting. + +His eyes were for her first, though the temptation was great to +have more than a hurried glimpse of the child in the chair beside +her. He held her off from him after the long embrace, and looked +into her face long and steadily, drinking in every feature of it +and wondering that he could mark no changes of time. A warm man, +his wife thought him, though had the opinion of his officers been +asked it would have been: a harsh man and a bitter one. + +"Wull, Annie, how is ut wi' ye?" he queried, and drew her to him +again. + +And again he held her away from him, this wife of ten years and of +whom he knew so little. She was almost a stranger--more a stranger +than his Chinese steward, and certainly far more a stranger than +his own officers whom he had seen every day, day and day, for eight +hundred and fifty days. Married ten years, and in that time he had +been with her nine weeks--scarcely a honeymoon. Each time home had +been a getting acquainted again with her. It was the fate of the +men who went out to the salt-ploughing. Little they knew of their +wives and less of their children. There was his chief engineer-- +old, near-sighted MacPherson--who told the story of returning home +to be locked out of his house by his four-year kiddie that never +had laid eyes on him before. + +"An' thus 'ull be the loddie," the skipper said, reaching out a +hesitant hand to the child's cheek. + +But the boy drew away from him, sheltering against the mother's +side. + +"Och!" she cried, "and he doesna know his own father." + +"Nor I hum. Heaven knows I could no a-picked hum out of a crowd, +though he'll be havin' your nose I'm thunkun'." + +"An' your own eyes, Donald. Look ut them. He's your own father, +laddie. Kiss hum like the little mon ye are." + +But the child drew closer to her, his expression of fear and +distrust growing stronger, and when the father attempted to take +him in his arms he threatened to cry. + +The skipper straightened up, and to conceal the pang at his heart +he drew out his watch and looked at it. + +"Ut's time to go, Annie," he said. "Thot train 'ull be startun'." + +He was silent on the train at first, divided between watching the +wife with the child going to sleep in her arms and looking out of +the window at the tilled fields and green unforested hills vague +and indistinct in the driving drizzle that had set in. They had +the compartment to themselves. When the boy slept she laid him out +on the seat and wrapped him warmly. And when the health of +relatives and friends had been inquired after, and the gossip of +Island McGill narrated, along with the weather and the price of +land and crops, there was little left to talk about save +themselves, and Captain MacElrath took up the tale brought home for +the good wife from all his world's-end wandering. But it was not a +tale of marvels he told, nor of beautiful flower-lands nor +mysterious Eastern cities. + +"What like is Java?" she asked once. + +"Full o' fever. Half the crew down wuth ut an' luttle work. Ut +was quinine an' quinine the whole blessed time. Each marnun' 'twas +quinine an' gin for all hands on an empty stomach. An' they who +was no sick made ut out to be hovun' ut bad uz the rest." + +Another time she asked about Newcastle. + +"Coals an' coal-dust--thot's all. No a nice sutty. I lost two +Chinks there, stokers the both of them. An' the owners paid a fine +tull the Government of a hundred pounds each for them. 'We regret +tull note,' they wrut me--I got the letter tull Oregon--'We regret +tull note the loss o' two Chinese members o' yer crew ot Newcastle, +an' we recommend greater carefulness un the future.' Greater +carefulness! And I could no a-been more careful. The Chinks hod +forty-five pounds each comun' tull them in wages, an' I was no a- +thunkun' they 'ud run. + +"But thot's their way--'we regret tull note,' 'we beg tull advise,' +'we recommend,' 'we canna understand'--an' the like o' thot. +Domned cargo tank! An' they would thunk I could drive her like a +Lucania, an' wi'out burnun' coals. There was thot propeller. I +was after them a guid while for ut. The old one was iron, thuck on +the edges, an' we couldna make our speed. An' the new one was +bronze--nine hundred pounds ut cost, an' then wantun' their returns +out o' ut, an' me wuth a bod passage an' lossin' time every day. +'We regret tull note your long passage from Voloparaiso tull Sydney +wuth an average daily run o' only one hundred an' suxty-seven. We +hod expected better results wuth the new propeller. You should a- +made an average daily run o' two hundred and suxteen.' + +"An' me on a wunter passage, blowin' a luvin' gale half the time, +wuth hurricane force in atweenwhiles, an' hove to sux days, wuth +engines stopped an' bunker coal runnun' short, an' me wuth a mate +thot stupid he could no pass a shup's light ot night wi'out callun' +me tull the brudge. I wrut an' told 'em so. An' then: 'Our +nautical adviser suggests you kept too far south,' an' 'We are +lookun' for better results from thot propeller.' Nautical +adviser!--shore pilot! Ut was the regular latitude for a wunter +passage from Voloparaiso tull Sydney. + +"An' when I come un tull Auckland short o' coal, after lettun' her +druft sux days wuth the fires out tull save the coal, an' wuth only +twenty tons in my bunkers, I was thunkun' o' the lossin' o' time +an' the expense, an' tull save the owners I took her un an' out +wi'out pilotage. Pilotage was no compulsory. An' un Yokohama, who +should I meet but Captun Robinson o' the Dyapsic. We got a-talkun' +about ports an' places down Australia-way, an' first thing he says: +'Speakun' o' Auckland--of course, Captun, you was never un +Auckland?' 'Yus,' I says, 'I was un there very recent.' 'Oh, ho,' +he says, very angry-like, 'so you was the smart Aleck thot fetched +me thot letter from the owners: "We note item of fufteen pounds +for pilotage ot Auckland. A shup o' ours was un tull Auckland +recently an' uncurred no such charge. We beg tull advise you thot +we conseeder thus pilotage an onnecessary expense which should no +be uncurred un the future.'" + +"But dud they say a word tull me for the fufteen pounds I saved +tull them? No a word. They send a letter tull Captun Robinson for +no savun' them the fufteen pounds, an' tull me: 'We note item of +two guineas doctor's fee at Auckland for crew. Please explain thus +onusual expunditure.' Ut was two o' the Chinks. I was thunkun' +they hod beri-beri, an' thot was the why o' sendun' for the doctor. +I buried the two of them ot sea not a week after. But ut was: +'Please explain thus onusual expunditure,' an' tull Captun +Robinson, 'We beg tull advise you thot we conseeder thus pilotage +an onnecessary expense.' + +"Dudna I cable them from Newcastle, tellun' them the old tank was +thot foul she needed dry-dock? Seven months out o' drydock, an' +the West Coast the quickest place for foulun' un the world. But +freights was up, an' they hod a charter o' coals for Portland. The +Arrata, one o' the Woor Line, left port the same day uz us, bound +for Portland, an' the old Tryapsic makun' sux knots, seven ot the +best. An' ut was ot Comox, takun' un bunker coal, I got the letter +from the owners. The boss humself hod signed ut, an' ot the bottom +he wrut un hus own bond: 'The Arrata beat you by four an' a half +days. Am dusappointed.' Dusappointed! When I had cabled them +from Newcastle. When she drydocked ot Portland, there was whuskers +on her a foot long, barnacles the size o' me fust, oysters like +young sauce plates. Ut took them two days afterward tull clean the +dock o' shells an' muck. + +"An' there was the motter o' them fire-bars ot Newcastle. The firm +ashore made them heavier than the engineer's speecifications, an' +then forgot tull charge for the dufference. Ot the last moment, +wuth me ashore gettun' me clearance, they come wuth the bill: +'Tull error on fire-bars, sux pounds.' They'd been tull the shup +an' MacPherson hod O.K.'d ut. I said ut was strange an' would no +pay. 'Then you are dootun' the chief engineer,' says they. 'I'm +no dootun',' says I, 'but I canna see my way tull sign. Come wuth +me tull the shup. The launch wull cost ye naught an' ut 'ull brung +ye back. An' we wull see what MacPherson says.' + +"But they would no come. Ot Portland I got the bill un a letter. +I took no notice. Ot Hong-Kong I got a letter from the owners. +The bill hod been sent tull them. I wrut them from Java +explainun'. At Marseilles the owners wrut me: 'Tull extra work un +engine-room, sux pounds. The engineer has O.K.'d ut, an' you have +no O.K.'d ut. Are you dootun' the engineer's honesty?' I wrut an' +told them I was no dootun' his honesty; thot the bill was for extra +weight o' fire-bars; an' thot ut was O.K. Dud they pay ut? They +no dud. They must unvestigate. An' some clerk un the office took +sick, an' the bill was lost. An' there was more letters. I got +letters from the owners an' the firm--'Tull error on fire-bars, sux +pounds'--ot Baltimore, ot Delagoa Bay, ot Moji, ot Rangoon, ot Rio, +an' ot Montevuddio. Ut uz no settled yut. I tell ye, Annie, the +owners are hard tull please." + +He communed with himself for a moment, and then muttered +indignantly: "Tull error on fire-bars, sux pounds." + +"Hov ye heard of Jamie?" his wife asked in the pause. + +Captain MacElrath shook his head. + +"He was washed off the poop wuth three seamen." + +"Whereabouts?" + +"Off the Horn. 'Twas on the Thornsby." + +"They would be runnun' homeward bound?" + +"Aye," she nodded. "We only got the word three days gone. His +wife is greetin' like tull die." + +"A good lod, Jamie," he commented, "but a stiff one ot carryun' on. +I mind me when we was mates together un the Abion. An' so Jamie's +gone." + +Again a pause fell, to be broken by the wife. + +"An' ye will no a-heard o' the Bankshire? MacDougall lost her in +Magellan Straits. 'Twas only yesterday ut was in the paper." + +"A cruel place, them Magellan Straits," he said. "Dudna thot +domned mate-fellow nigh putt me ashore twice on the one passage +through? He was a eediot, a lunatuc. I wouldna have hum on the +brudge a munut. Comun' tull Narrow Reach, thuck weather, wuth snow +squalls, me un the chart-room, dudna I guv hum the changed course? +'South-east-by-east,' I told hum. 'South-east-by-east, sir,' says +he. Fufteen munuts after I comes on tull the brudge. 'Funny,' +says thot mate-fellow, 'I'm no rememberun' ony islands un the mouth +o' Narrow Reach. I took one look ot the islands an' yells, 'Putt +your wheel hard a-starboard,' tull the mon ot the wheel. An' ye +should a-seen the old Tryapsic turnun' the sharpest circle she ever +turned. I waited for the snow tull clear, an' there was Narrow +Reach, nice uz ye please, tull the east'ard an' the islands un the +mouth o' False Bay tull the south'ard. 'What course was ye +steerun'?' I says tull the mon ot the wheel. 'South-by-east, sir,' +says he. I looked tull the mate-fellow. What could I say? I was +thot wroth I could a-kult hum. Four points dufference. Five +munuts more an' the old Tryapsic would a-been funushed. + +"An' was ut no the same when we cleared the Straits tull the +east'ard? Four hours would a-seen us guid an' clear. I was forty +hours then on the brudge. I guv the mate his course, an' the +bearun' o' the Askthar Light astern. 'Don't let her bear more tull +the north'ard than west-by-north,' I said tull hum, 'an' ye wull be +all right.' An' I went below an' turned un. But I couldna sleep +for worryun'. After forty hours on the brudge, what was four hours +more? I thought. An' for them four hours wull ye be lettun' the +mate loss her on ye? 'No,' I says to myself. An' wuth thot I got +up, hod a wash an' a cup o' coffee, an' went tull the brudge. I +took one look ot the bearun' o' Askthar Light. 'Twas nor'west-by- +west, and the old Tryapsic down on the shoals. He was a eediot, +thot mate-fellow. Ye could look overside an' see the duscoloration +of the watter. 'Twas a close call for the old Tryapsic I'm tellun' +ye. Twice un thirty hours he'd a-hod her ashore uf ut hod no been +for me." + +Captain MacElrath fell to gazing at the sleeping child with mild +wonder in his small blue eyes, and his wife sought to divert him +from his woes. + +"Ye remember Jummy MacCaul?" she asked. "Ye went tull school wuth +hus two boys. Old Jummy MacCaul thot hoz the farm beyond Doctor +Haythorn's place." + +"Oh, aye, an' what o' hum? Uz he dead?" + +"No, but he was after askun' your father, when he sailed last time +for Voloparaiso, uf ye'd been there afore. An' when your father +says no, then Jummy says, 'An' how wull he be knowun a' tull find +hus way?' An' with thot your father says: 'Verry sumple ut uz, +Jummy. Supposun' you was goin' tull the mainland tull a mon who +luved un Belfast. Belfast uz a bug sutty, Jummy, an' how would ye +be findun' your way?' 'By way o' me tongue,' says Jummy; 'I'd be +askun' the folk I met.' 'I told ye ut was sumple,' says your +father. 'Ut's the very same way my Donald finds the road tull +Voloparaiso. He asks every shup he meets upon the sea tull ot last +he meets wuth a shup thot's been tull Voloparaiso, an' the captun +o' thot shup tells hum the way.' An' Jummy scratches hus head an' +says he understands an' thot ut's a very sumple motter after all." + +The skipper chuckled at the joke, and his tired blue eyes were +merry for the moment. + +"He was a thun chap, thot mate-fellow, oz thun oz you an' me putt +together," he remarked after a time, a slight twinkle in his eye of +appreciation of the bull. But the twinkle quickly disappeared and +the blue eyes took on a bleak and wintry look. "What dud he do ot +Voloparaiso but land sux hundred fathom o' chain cable an' take +never a receipt from the lighter-mon. I was gettun' my clearance +ot the time. When we got tull sea, I found he hod no receipt for +the cable. + +"'An' ye no took a receipt for ut?' says I. + +"'No,' says he. 'Wasna ut goin' direct tull the agents?' + +"'How long ha' ye been goin' tull sea,' says I, 'not tull be +knowin' the mate's duty uz tull deluver no cargo wuthout receipt +for same? An' on the West Coast ot thot. What's tull stop the +lighter-mon from stealun' a few lengths o' ut?' + +"An' ut come out uz I said. Sux hundred hundred went over the +side, but four hundred an' ninety-five was all the agents received. +The lighter-mon swore ut was all he received from the mate--four +hundred an' ninety-five fathom. I got a letter from the owners ot +Portland. They no blamed the mate for ut, but me, an' me ashore ot +the time on shup's buzz'ness. I could no be in the two places ot +the one time. An' the letters from the owners an' the agents uz +still comun' tull me. + +"Thot mate-fellow was no a proper sailor, an' no a mon tull work +for owners. Dudna he want tull break me wuth the Board of Trade +for bein' below my marks? He said as much tull the bos'n. An' he +told me tull my face homeward bound thot I'd been half an inch +under my marks. 'Twas at Portland, loadun' cargo un fresh watter +an' goin' tull Comox tull load bunker coal un salt watter. I tell +ye, Annie, ut takes close fuggerin', an' I WAS half an inch under +the load-line when the bunker coal was un. But I'm no tellun' any +other body but you. An' thot mate-fellow untendun' tull report me +tull the Board o' Trade, only for thot he saw fut tull be sliced un +two pieces on the steam-pipe cover. + +"He was a fool. After loadun' ot Portland I hod tull take on suxty +tons o' coal tull last me tull Comox. The charges for lighterun' +was heavy, an' no room ot the coal dock. A French barque was lyin' +alongside the dock an' I spoke tull the captun, askun' hum what he +would charge when work for the day was done, tull haul clear for a +couple o' hours an' let me un. 'Twenty dollars,' said he. Ut was +savun' money on lighters tull the owner, an' I gave ut tull hum. +An' thot night, after dark, I hauled un an' took on the coal. Then +I started tull go out un the stream an' drop anchor--under me own +steam, of course. + +"We hod tull go out stern first, an' somethun' went wrong wuth the +reversun' gear. Old MacPherson said he could work ut by hond, but +very slow ot thot. An' I said 'All right.' We started. The pilot +was on board. The tide was ebbun' stuffly, an' right abreast an' a +but below was a shup lyin' wuth a lighter on each side. I saw the +shup's ridun' lights, but never a light on the lighters. Ut was +close quarters to shuft a bug vessel onder steam, wuth MacPherson +workun' the reversun' gear by hond. We hod to come close down upon +the shup afore I could go ahead an' clear o' the shups on the dock- +ends. An' we struck the lighter stern-on, just uz I rung tull +MacPherson half ahead. + +"'What was thot?' says the pilot, when we struck the lighter. + +"'I dunna know,' says I, 'an' I'm wonderun'.' + +"The pilot was no keen, ye see, tull hus job. I went on tull a +guid place an' dropped anchor, an' ut would all a-been well but for +thot domned eediot mate. + +"'We smashed thot lighter,' says he, comun' up the lodder tull the +brudge--an' the pilot stondun' there wuth his ears cocked tull +hear. + +"'What lighter?' says I. + +"'Thot lighter alongside the shup,' says the mate. + +"'I dudna see no lighter,' says I, and wuth thot I steps on hus fut +guid an' hard. + +"After the pilot was gone I says tull the mate: 'Uf you dunna know +onythun', old mon, for Heaven's sake keep your mouth shut.' + +"'But ye dud smash thot lighter, dudn't ye?' says he. + +"'Uf we dud,' says I, 'ut's no your buzz'ness tull be tellun' the +pilot--though, mind ye, I'm no admuttun' there was ony lighter.' + +"An' next marnun', just uz I'm after dressun', the steward says, 'A +mon tull see ye, sir.' 'Fetch hum un,' says I. An' un he come. +'Sut down,' says I. An' he sot down. + +"He was the owner of the lighter, an' when he hod told hus story, I +says, 'I dudna see ony lighter.' + +"'What, mon?' says he. 'No see a two-hundred-ton lighter, bug oz a +house, alongside thot shup?' + +"'I was goin' by the shup's lights,' says I, 'an' I dudna touch the +shup, thot I know.' + +"'But ye dud touch the lighter,' says he. 'Ye smashed her. +There's a thousand dollars' domage done, an' I'll see ye pay for +ut.' + +'Look here, muster,' says I, 'when I'm shuftun' a shup ot night I +follow the law, an' the law dustunctly says I must regulate me +actions by the lights o' the shuppun'. Your lighter never hod no +ridun' light, nor dud I look for ony lighter wuthout lights tull +show ut.' + +"'The mate says--' he beguns. + +"'Domn the mate,' says I. 'Dud your lighter hov a ridun' light?' + +"'No, ut dud not,' says he, 'but ut was a clear night wuth the moon +a-showun'.' + +"'Ye seem tull know your buzz'ness,' says I. 'But let me tell ye +thot I know my buzz'ness uz well, an' thot I'm no a-lookun' for +lighters wuthout lights. Uf ye thunk ye hov a case, go ahead. The +steward will show ye out. Guid day.' + +"An' thot was the end o' ut. But ut wull show ye what a puir +fellow thot mate was. I call ut a blessun' for all masters thot he +was sliced un two on thot steam-pipe cover. He had a pull un the +office an' thot was the why he was kept on." + +"The Wekley farm wull soon be for sale, so the agents be tellun' +me," his wife remarked, slyly watching what effect her announcement +would have upon him. + +His eyes flashed eagerly on the instant, and he straightened up as +might a man about to engage in some agreeable task. It was the +farm of his vision, adjoining his father's, and her own people +farmed not a mile away. + +"We wull be buyun' ut," he said, "though we wull be no tellun' a +soul of ut ontul ut's bought an' the money paid down. I've savun' +consuderable these days, though pickun's uz no what they used to +be, an' we hov a tidy nest-egg laid by. I wull see the father an' +hove the money ready tull hus hond, so uf I'm ot sea he can buy +whenever the land offers." + +He rubbed the frosted moisture from the inside of the window and +peered out at the pouring rain, through which he could discern +nothing. + +"When I was a young men I used tull be afeard thot the owners would +guv me the sack. Stull afeard I am of the sack. But once thot +farm is mine I wull no be afeard ony longer. Ut's a puir job thus +sea-farmun'. Me managin' un all seas an' weather an' perils o' the +deep a shup worth fufty thousand pounds, wuth cargoes ot times +worth fufty thousand more--a hundred thousand pounds, half a +million dollars uz the Yankees say, an' me wuth all the +responsubility gettun' a screw o' twenty pounds a month. What mon +ashore, managin' a buz'ness worth a hundred thousand pounds wull be +gettun' uz small a screw uz twenty pounds? An' wuth such masters +uz a captun serves--the owners, the underwriters, an' the Board o' +Trade, all pullun' an wantun' dufferent thungs--the owners wantun' +quick passages an' domn the rusk, the underwriters wantun' safe +passages an' domn the delay, an' the Board o' Trade wantun' +cautious passages an' caution always meanun' delay. Three +dufferent masters, an' all three able an' wullun' to break ye uf ye +don't serve their dufferent wushes." + +He felt the train slackening speed, and peered again through the +misty window. He stood up, buttoned his overcoat, turned up the +collar, and awkwardly gathered the child, still asleep, in his +arms. + +"I wull see the father," he said, "an' hov the money ready tull hus +hond so uf I'm ot sea when the land offers he wull no muss the +chance tull buy. An' then the owners can guv me the sack uz soon +uz they like. Ut will be all night un, an' I wull be wuth you, +Annie, an' the sea can go tull hell." + +Happiness was in both their faces at the prospect, and for a moment +both saw the same vision of peace. Annie leaned toward him, and as +the train stopped they kissed each other across the sleeping child. + + + +SAMUEL + + + +Margaret Henan would have been a striking figure under any +circumstances, but never more so than when I first chanced upon +her, a sack of grain of fully a hundredweight on her shoulder, as +she walked with sure though tottering stride from the cart-tail to +the stable, pausing for an instant to gather strength at the foot +of the steep steps that led to the grain-bin. There were four of +these steps, and she went up them, a step at a time, slowly, +unwaveringly, and with so dogged certitude that it never entered my +mind that her strength could fail her and let that hundred-weight +sack fall from the lean and withered frame that wellnigh doubled +under it. For she was patently an old woman, and it was her age +that made me linger by the cart and watch. + +Six times she went between the cart and the stable, each time with +a full sack on her back, and beyond passing the time of day with me +she took no notice of my presence. Then, the cart empty, she +fumbled for matches and lighted a short clay pipe, pressing down +the burning surface of the tobacco with a calloused and apparently +nerveless thumb. The hands were noteworthy. They were large- +knuckled, sinewy and malformed by labour, rimed with callouses, the +nails blunt and broken, and with here and there cuts and bruises, +healed and healing, such as are common to the hands of hard-working +men. On the back were huge, upstanding veins, eloquent of age and +toil. Looking at them, it was hard to believe that they were the +hands of the woman who had once been the belle of Island McGill. +This last, of course, I learned later. At the time I knew neither +her history nor her identity. + +She wore heavy man's brogans. Her legs were stockingless, and I +had noticed when she walked that her bare feet were thrust into the +crinkly, iron-like shoes that sloshed about her lean ankles at +every step. Her figure, shapeless and waistless, was garbed in a +rough man's shirt and in a ragged flannel petticoat that had once +been red. But it was her face, wrinkled, withered and weather- +beaten, surrounded by an aureole of unkempt and straggling wisps of +greyish hair, that caught and held me. Neither drifted hair nor +serried wrinkles could hide the splendid dome of a forehead, high +and broad without verging in the slightest on the abnormal. + +The sunken cheeks and pinched nose told little of the quality of +the life that flickered behind those clear blue eyes of hers. +Despite the minutiae of wrinkle-work that somehow failed to weazen +them, her eyes were clear as a girl's--clear, out-looking, and far- +seeing, and with an open and unblinking steadfastness of gaze that +was disconcerting. The remarkable thing was the distance between +them. It is a lucky man or woman who has the width of an eye +between, but with Margaret Henan the width between her eyes was +fully that of an eye and a half. Yet so symmetrically moulded was +her face that this remarkable feature produced no uncanny effect, +and, for that matter, would have escaped the casual observer's +notice. The mouth, shapeless and toothless, with down-turned +corners and lips dry and parchment-like, nevertheless lacked the +muscular slackness so usual with age. The lips might have been +those of a mummy, save for that impression of rigid firmness they +gave. Not that they were atrophied. On the contrary, they seemed +tense and set with a muscular and spiritual determination. There, +and in the eyes, was the secret of the certitude with which she +carried the heavy sacks up the steep steps, with never a false step +or overbalance, and emptied them in the grain-bin. + +"You are an old woman to be working like this," I ventured. + +She looked at me with that strange, unblinking gaze, and she +thought and spoke with the slow deliberateness that characterized +everything about her, as if well aware of an eternity that was hers +and in which there was no need for haste. Again I was impressed by +the enormous certitude of her. In this eternity that seemed so +indubitably hers, there was time and to spare for safe-footing and +stable equilibrium--for certitude, in short. No more in her +spiritual life than in carrying the hundredweights of grain was +there a possibility of a misstep or an overbalancing. The feeling +produced in me was uncanny. Here was a human soul that, save for +the most glimmering of contacts, was beyond the humanness of me. +And the more I learned of Margaret Henan in the weeks that followed +the more mysteriously remote she became. She was as alien as a +far-journeyer from some other star, and no hint could she nor all +the countryside give me of what forms of living, what heats of +feeling, or rules of philosophic contemplation actuated her in all +that she had been and was. + +"I wull be suvunty-two come Guid Friday a fortnight," she said in +reply to my question. + +"But you are an old woman to be doing this man's work, and a strong +man's work at that," I insisted. + +Again she seemed to immerse herself in that atmosphere of +contemplative eternity, and so strangely did it affect me that I +should not have been surprised to have awaked a century or so later +and found her just beginning to enunciate her reply-- + +"The work hoz tull be done, an' I am beholden tull no one." + +"But have you no children, no family, relations?" + +"Oh, aye, a-plenty o' them, but they no see fut tull be helpun' +me." + +She drew out her pipe for a moment, then added, with a nod of her +head toward the house, "I luv' wuth meself." + +I glanced at the house, straw-thatched and commodious, at the large +stable, and at the large array of fields I knew must belong with +the place. + +"It is a big bit of land for you to farm by yourself." + +"Oh, aye, a bug but, suvunty acres. Ut kept me old mon buzzy, +along wuth a son an' a hired mon, tull say naught o' extra honds un +the harvest an' a maid-servant un the house." + +She clambered into the cart, gathered the reins in her hands, and +quizzed me with her keen, shrewd eyes. + +"Belike ye hail from over the watter--Ameruky, I'm meanun'?" + +"Yes, I'm a Yankee," I answered. + +"Ye wull no be findun' mony Island McGill folk stoppun' un +Ameruky?" + +"No; I don't remember ever meeting one, in the States." + +She nodded her head. + +"They are home-luvun' bodies, though I wull no be sayin' they are +no fair-travelled. Yet they come home ot the last, them oz are no +lost ot sea or kult by fevers an' such-like un foreign parts." + +"Then your sons will have gone to sea and come home again?" I +queried. + +"Oh, aye, all savun' Samuel oz was drownded." + +At the mention of Samuel I could have sworn to a strange light in +her eyes, and it seemed to me, as by some telepathic flash, that I +divined in her a tremendous wistfulness, an immense yearning. It +seemed to me that here was the key to her inscrutableness, the clue +that if followed properly would make all her strangeness plain. It +came to me that here was a contact and that for the moment I was +glimpsing into the soul of her. The question was tickling on my +tongue, but she forestalled me. + +She tchk'd to the horse, and with a "Guid day tull you, sir," drove +off. + + +A simple, homely people are the folk of Island McGill, and I doubt +if a more sober, thrifty, and industrious folk is to be found in +all the world. Meeting them abroad--and to meet them abroad one +must meet them on the sea, for a hybrid sea-faring and farmer breed +are they--one would never take them to be Irish. Irish they claim +to be, speaking of the North of Ireland with pride and sneering at +their Scottish brothers; yet Scotch they undoubtedly are, +transplanted Scotch of long ago, it is true, but none the less +Scotch, with a thousand traits, to say nothing of their tricks of +speech and woolly utterance, which nothing less than their Scotch +clannishness could have preserved to this late day. + +A narrow loch, scarcely half a mile wide, separates Island McGill +from the mainland of Ireland; and, once across this loch, one finds +himself in an entirely different country. The Scotch impression is +strong, and the people, to commence with, are Presbyterians. When +it is considered that there is no public-house in all the island +and that seven thousand souls dwell therein, some idea may be +gained of the temperateness of the community. Wedded to old ways, +public opinion and the ministers are powerful influences, while +fathers and mothers are revered and obeyed as in few other places +in this modern world. Courting lasts never later than ten at +night, and no girl walks out with her young man without her +parents' knowledge and consent. + +The young men go down to the sea and sow their wild oats in the +wicked ports, returning periodically, between voyages, to live the +old intensive morality, to court till ten o'clock, to sit under the +minister each Sunday, and to listen at home to the same stern +precepts that the elders preached to them from the time they were +laddies. Much they learned of women in the ends of the earth, +these seafaring sons, yet a canny wisdom was theirs and they never +brought wives home with them. The one solitary exception to this +had been the schoolmaster, who had been guilty of bringing a wife +from half a mile the other side of the loch. For this he had never +been forgiven, and he rested under a cloud for the remainder of his +days. At his death the wife went back across the loch to her own +people, and the blot on the escutcheon of Island McGill was erased. +In the end the sailor-men married girls of their own homeland and +settled down to become exemplars of all the virtues for which the +island was noted. + +Island McGill was without a history. She boasted none of the +events that go to make history. There had never been any wearing +of the green, any Fenian conspiracies, any land disturbances. +There had been but one eviction, and that purely technical--a test +case, and on advice of the tenant's lawyer. So Island McGill was +without annals. History had passed her by. She paid her taxes, +acknowledged her crowned rulers, and left the world alone; all she +asked in return was that the world should leave her alone. The +world was composed of two parts--Island McGill and the rest of it. +And whatever was not Island McGill was outlandish and barbarian; +and well she knew, for did not her seafaring sons bring home report +of that world and its ungodly ways? + + +It was from the skipper of a Glasgow tramp, as passenger from +Colombo to Rangoon, that I had first learned of the existence of +Island McGill; and it was from him that I had carried the letter +that gave me entrance to the house of Mrs. Ross, widow of a master +mariner, with a daughter living with her and with two sons, master +mariners themselves and out upon the sea. Mrs. Ross did not take +in boarders, and it was Captain Ross's letter alone that had +enabled me to get from her bed and board. In the evening, after my +encounter with Margaret Henan, I questioned Mrs. Ross, and I knew +on the instant that I had in truth stumbled upon mystery. + +Like all Island McGill folk, as I was soon to discover, Mrs. Ross +was at first averse to discussing Margaret Henan at all. Yet it +was from her I learned that evening that Margaret Henan had once +been one of the island belles. Herself the daughter of a well-to- +do farmer, she had married Thomas Henan, equally well-to-do. +Beyond the usual housewife's tasks she had never been accustomed to +work. Unlike many of the island women, she had never lent a hand +in the fields. + +"But what of her children?" I asked. + +"Two o' the sons, Jamie an' Timothy uz married an' be goun' tull +sea. Thot bug house close tull the post office uz Jamie's. The +daughters thot ha' no married be luvun' wuth them as dud marry. +An' the rest be dead." + +"The Samuels," Clara interpolated, with what I suspected was a +giggle. + +She was Mrs. Ross's daughter, a strapping young woman with handsome +features and remarkably handsome black eyes. + +"'Tuz naught to be smuckerun' ot," her mother reproved her. + +"The Samuels?" I intervened. "I don't understand." + +"Her four sons thot died." + +"And were they all named Samuel?" + +"Aye." + +"Strange," I commented in the lagging silence. + +"Very strange," Mrs. Ross affirmed, proceeding stolidly with the +knitting of the woollen singlet on her knees--one of the countless +under-garments that she interminably knitted for her skipper sons. + +"And it was only the Samuels that died?" I queried, in further +attempt. + +"The others luved," was the answer. "A fine fomuly--no finer on +the island. No better lods ever sailed out of Island McGill. The +munuster held them up oz models tull pottern after. Nor was ever a +whusper breathed again' the girls." + +"But why is she left alone now in her old age?" I persisted. "Why +don't her own flesh and blood look after her? Why does she live +alone? Don't they ever go to see her or care for her?" + +"Never a one un twenty years an' more now. She fetched ut on tull +herself. She drove them from the house just oz she drove old Tom +Henan, thot was her husband, tull hus death." + +"Drink?" I ventured. + +Mrs. Ross shook her head scornfully, as if drink was a weakness +beneath the weakest of Island McGill. + +A long pause followed, during which Mrs. Ross knitted stolidly on, +only nodding permission when Clara's young man, mate on one of the +Shire Line sailing ships, came to walk out with her. I studied the +half-dozen ostrich eggs, hanging in the corner against the wall +like a cluster of some monstrous fruit. On each shell were painted +precipitous and impossible seas through which full-rigged ships +foamed with a lack of perspective only equalled by their sharp +technical perfection. On the mantelpiece stood two large pearl +shells, obviously a pair, intricately carved by the patient hands +of New Caledonian convicts. In the centre of the mantel was a +stuffed bird-of-paradise, while about the room were scattered +gorgeous shells from the southern seas, delicate sprays of coral +sprouting from barnacled pi-pi shells and cased in glass, assegais +from South Africa, stone axes from New Guinea, huge Alaskan +tobacco-pouches beaded with heraldic totem designs, a boomerang +from Australia, divers ships in glass bottles, a cannibal kai-kai +bowl from the Marquesas, and fragile cabinets from China and the +Indies and inlaid with mother-of-pearl and precious woods. + +I gazed at this varied trove brought home by sailor sons, and +pondered the mystery of Margaret Henan, who had driven her husband +to his death and been forsaken by all her kin. It was not the +drink. Then what was it?--some shocking cruelty? some amazing +infidelity? or some fearful, old-world peasant-crime? + +I broached my theories, but to all Mrs. Ross shook her head. + +"Ut was no thot," she said. "Margaret was a guid wife an' a guid +mother, an' I doubt she would harm a fly. She brought up her +fomuly God-fearin' an' decent-minded. Her trouble was thot she +took lunatic--turned eediot." + +Mrs. Ross tapped significantly on her forehead to indicate a state +of addlement. + +"But I talked with her this afternoon," I objected, "and I found +her a sensible woman--remarkably bright for one of her years." + +"Aye, an' I'm grantun' all thot you say," she went on calmly. "But +I am no referrun' tull thot. I am referrun' tull her wucked-headed +an' vucious stubbornness. No more stubborn woman ever luv'd than +Margaret Henan. Ut was all on account o' Samuel, which was the +name o' her youngest an' they do say her favourut brother--hum oz +died by hus own hond all through the munuster's mustake un no +registerun' the new church ot Dublin. Ut was a lesson thot the +name was musfortunate, but she would no take ut, an' there was talk +when she called her first child Samuel--hum thot died o' the croup. +An' wuth thot what does she do but call the next one Samuel, an' +hum only three when he fell un tull the tub o' hot watter an' was +plain cooked tull death. Ut all come, I tell you, o' her wucked- +headed an' foolush stubbornness. For a Samuel she must hov; an' ut +was the death of the four of her sons. After the first, dudna her +own mother go down un the dirt tull her feet, a-beggun' an' +pleadun' wuth her no tull name her next one Samuel? But she was no +tull be turned from her purpose. Margaret Henan was always set on +her ways, an' never more so thon on thot name Samuel. + +"She was fair lunatuc on Samuel. Dudna her neighbours' an' all +kuth an' kun savun' them thot luv'd un the house wuth her, get up +an' walk out ot the christenun' of the second--hum thot was cooked? +Thot they dud, an' ot the very moment the munuster asked what would +the bairn's name be. 'Samuel,' says she; an' wuth thot they got up +an' walked out an' left the house. An' ot the door dudna her Aunt +Fannie, her mother's suster, turn an' say loud for all tull hear: +'What for wull she be wantun' tull murder the wee thing?' The +munuster heard fine, an' dudna like ut, but, oz he told my Larry +afterward, what could he do? Ut was the woman's wush, an' there +was no law again' a mother callun' her child accordun' tull her +wush. + +"An' then was there no the third Samuel? An' when he was lost ot +sea off the Cape, dudna she break all laws o' nature tull hov a +fourth? She was forty-seven, I'm tellun' ye, an' she hod a child +ot forty-seven. Thunk on ut! Ot forty-seven! Ut was fair +scand'lous." + + +From Clara, next morning, I got the tale of Margaret Henan's +favourite brother; and from here and there, in the week that +followed, I pieced together the tragedy of Margaret Henan. Samuel +Dundee had been the youngest of Margaret's four brothers, and, as +Clara told me, she had well-nigh worshipped him. He was going to +sea at the time, skipper of one of the sailing ships of the Bank +Line, when he married Agnes Hewitt. She was described as a slender +wisp of a girl, delicately featured and with a nervous organization +of the supersensitive order. Theirs had been the first marriage in +the "new" church, and after a two-weeks' honeymoon Samuel had +kissed his bride good-bye and sailed in command of the Loughbank, a +big four-masted barque. + +And it was because of the "new" church that the minister's blunder +occurred. Nor was it the blunder of the minister alone, as one of +the elders later explained; for it was equally the blunder of the +whole Presbytery of Coughleen, which included fifteen churches on +Island McGill and the mainland. The old church, beyond repair, had +been torn down and the new one built on the original foundation. +Looking upon the foundation-stones as similar to a ship's keel, it +never entered the minister's nor the Presbytery's head that the new +church was legally any other than the old church. + +"An' three couples was married the first week un the new church," +Clara said. "First of all, Samuel Dundee an' Agnes Hewitt; the +next day Albert Mahan an' Minnie Duncan; an' by the week-end Eddie +Troy and Flo Mackintosh--all sailor-men, an' un sux weeks' time the +last of them back tull their ships an' awa', an' no one o' them +dreamin' of the wuckedness they'd been ot." + +The Imp of the Perverse must have chuckled at the situation. All +things favoured. The marriages had taken place in the first week +of May, and it was not till three months later that the minister, +as required by law, made his quarterly report to the civil +authorities in Dublin. Promptly came back the announcement that +his church had no legal existence, not being registered according +to the law's demands. This was overcome by prompt registration; +but the marriages were not to be so easily remedied. The three +sailor husbands were away, and their wives, in short, were not +their wives. + +"But the munuster was no for alarmin' the bodies," said Clara. "He +kept hus council an' bided hus time, waitun' for the lods tull be +back from sea. Oz luck would have ut, he was away across the +island tull a christenun' when Albert Mahan arrives home +onexpected, hus shup just docked ot Dublin. Ut's nine o'clock ot +night when the munuster, un hus sluppers an' dressun'-gown, gets +the news. Up he jumps an' calls for horse an' saddle, an' awa' he +goes like the wund for Albert Mahan's. Albert uz just goun' tull +bed an' hoz one shoe off when the munuster arrives. + +"'Come wuth me, the pair o' ye,' says he, breathless-like. 'What +for, an' me dead weary an' goun' tull bed?' says Albert. 'Yull be +lawful married,' says the munuster. Albert looks black an' says, +'Now, munuster, ye wull be jokun',' but tull humself, oz I've heard +hum tell mony a time, he uz wonderun' thot the munuster should a- +took tull whusky ot hus time o' life. + +"'We be no married?' says Minnie. He shook his head. 'An' I om no +Mussus Mahan?' 'No,' says he, 'ye are no Mussus Mahan. Ye are +plain Muss Duncan.' 'But ye married 'us yoursel',' says she. 'I +dud an' I dudna,' says he. An' wuth thot he tells them the whole +upshot, an' Albert puts on hus shoe, an' they go wuth the munuster +an' are married proper an' lawful, an' oz Albert Mahan says +afterward mony's the time, ''Tus no every mon thot hoz two weddun' +nights on Island McGill.'" + +Six months later Eddie Troy came home and was promptly remarried. +But Samuel Dundee was away on a three-years' voyage and his ship +fell overdue. Further to complicate the situation, a baby boy, +past two years old, was waiting for him in the arms of his wife. +The months passed, and the wife grew thin with worrying. "Ut's no +meself I'm thunkun' on," she is reported to have said many times, +"but ut's the puir fatherless bairn. Uf aught happened tull Samuel +where wull the bairn stond?" + +Lloyd's posted the Loughbank as missing, and the owners ceased the +monthly remittance of Samuel's half-pay to his wife. It was the +question of the child's legitimacy that preyed on her mind, and, +when all hope of Samuel's return was abandoned, she drowned herself +and the child in the loch. And here enters the greater tragedy. +The Loughbank was not lost. By a series of sea disasters and +delays too interminable to relate, she had made one of those long, +unsighted passages such as occur once or twice in half a century. +How the Imp must have held both his sides! Back from the sea came +Samuel, and when they broke the news to him something else broke +somewhere in his heart or head. Next morning they found him where +he had tried to kill himself across the grave of his wife and +child. Never in the history of Island McGill was there so fearful +a death-bed. He spat in the minister's face and reviled him, and +died blaspheming so terribly that those that tended on him did so +with averted gaze and trembling hands. + +And, in the face of all this, Margaret Henan named her first child +Samuel. + + +How account for the woman's stubbornness? Or was it a morbid +obsession that demanded a child of hers should be named Samuel? +Her third child was a girl, named after herself, and the fourth was +a boy again. Despite the strokes of fate that had already bereft +her, and despite the loss of friends and relatives, she persisted +in her resolve to name the child after her brother. She was +shunned at church by those who had grown up with her. Her mother, +after a final appeal, left her house with the warning that if the +child were so named she would never speak to her again. And though +the old lady lived thirty-odd years longer she kept her word. The +minister agreed to christen the child any name but Samuel, and +every other minister on Island McGill refused to christen it by the +name she had chosen. There was talk on the part of Margaret Henan +of going to law at the time, but in the end she carried the child +to Belfast and there had it christened Samuel. + +And then nothing happened. The whole island was confuted. The boy +grew and prospered. The schoolmaster never ceased averring that it +was the brightest lad he had ever seen. Samuel had a splendid +constitution, a tremendous grip on life. To everybody's amazement +he escaped the usual run of childish afflictions. Measles, +whooping-cough and mumps knew him not. He was armour-clad against +germs, immune to all disease. Headaches and earaches were things +unknown. "Never so much oz a boil or a pumple," as one of the old +bodies told me, ever marred his healthy skin. He broke school +records in scholarship and athletics, and whipped every boy of his +size or years on Island McGill. + +It was a triumph for Margaret Henan. This paragon was hers, and it +bore the cherished name. With the one exception of her mother, +friends and relatives drifted back and acknowledged that they had +been mistaken; though there were old crones who still abided by +their opinion and who shook their heads ominously over their cups +of tea. The boy was too wonderful to last. There was no escaping +the curse of the name his mother had wickedly laid upon him. The +young generation joined Margaret Henan in laughing at them, but the +old crones continued to shake their heads. + +Other children followed. Margaret Henan's fifth was a boy, whom +she called Jamie, and in rapid succession followed three girls, +Alice, Sara, and Nora, the boy Timothy, and two more girls, +Florence and Katie. Katie was the last and eleventh, and Margaret +Henan, at thirty-five, ceased from her exertions. She had done +well by Island McGill and the Queen. Nine healthy children were +hers. All prospered. It seemed her ill-luck had shot its bolt +with the deaths of her first two. Nine lived, and one of them was +named Samuel. + +Jamie elected to follow the sea, though it was not so much a matter +of election as compulsion, for the eldest sons on Island McGill +remained on the land, while all other sons went to the salt- +ploughing. Timothy followed Jamie, and by the time the latter had +got his first command, a steamer in the Bay trade out of Cardiff, +Timothy was mate of a big sailing ship. Samuel, however, did not +take kindly to the soil. The farmer's life had no attraction for +him. His brothers went to sea, not out of desire, but because it +was the only way for them to gain their bread; and he, who had no +need to go, envied them when, returned from far voyages, they sat +by the kitchen fire, and told their bold tales of the wonderlands +beyond the sea-rim. + +Samuel became a teacher, much to his father's disgust, and even +took extra certificates, going to Belfast for his examinations. +When the old master retired, Samuel took over his school. +Secretly, however, he studied navigation, and it was Margaret's +delight when he sat by the kitchen fire, and, despite their +master's tickets, tangled up his brothers in the theoretics of +their profession. Tom Henan alone was outraged when Samuel, school +teacher, gentleman, and heir to the Henan farm, shipped to sea +before the mast. Margaret had an abiding faith in her son's star, +and whatever he did she was sure was for the best. Like everything +else connected with his glorious personality, there had never been +known so swift a rise as in the case of Samuel. Barely with two +years' sea experience before the mast, he was taken from the +forecastle and made a provisional second mate. This occurred in a +fever port on the West Coast, and the committee of skippers that +examined him agreed that he knew more of the science of navigation +than they had remembered or forgotten. Two years later he sailed +from Liverpool, mate of the Starry Grace, with both master's and +extra-master's tickets in his possession. And then it happened-- +the thing the old crones had been shaking their heads over for +years. + +It was told me by Gavin McNab, bos'n of the Starry Grace at the +time, himself an Island McGill man. + +"Wull do I remember ut," he said. "We was runnin' our Eastun' +down, an' makun' heavy weather of ut. Oz fine a sailor-mon oz ever +walked was Samuel Henan. I remember the look of hum wull thot last +marnun', a-watch-un' them bug seas curlun' up astern, an' a- +watchun' the old girl an' seeun' how she took them--the skupper +down below an' drunkun' for days. Ut was ot seven thot Henan +brought her up on tull the wund, not darun' tull run longer on thot +fearful sea. Ot eight, after havun' breakfast, he turns un, an' a +half hour after up comes the skupper, bleary-eyed an' shaky an' +holdun' on tull the companion. Ut was fair smokun', I om tellun' +ye, an' there he stood, blunkun' an' noddun' an' talkun' tull +humsel'. 'Keep off,' says he ot last tull the mon ot the wheel. +'My God!' says the second mate, standun' beside hum. The skupper +never looks tull hum ot all, but keeps on mutterun" an' jabberun' +tull humsel'. All of a suddent-like he straightens up an' throws +hus head back, an' says: 'Put your wheel over, me mon--now domn +ye! Are ye deef thot ye'll no be hearun' me?' + +"Ut was a drunken mon's luck, for the Starry Grace wore off afore +thot God-Almighty gale wuthout shuppun' a bucket o' watter, the +second mate shoutun' orders an' the crew jumpun' like mod. An' +wuth thot the skupper nods contented-like tull humself an' goes +below after more whusky. Ut was plain murder o' the lives o' all +of us, for ut was no the time for the buggest shup afloat tull be +runnun'. Run? Never hov I seen the like! Ut was beyond all +thunkun', an' me goun' tull sea, boy an' men, for forty year. I +tell you ut was fair awesome. + +"The face o' the second mate was white oz death, an' he stood ut +alone for half an hour, when ut was too much for hum an' he went +below an' called Samuel an' the third. Aye, a fine sailor-mon thot +Samuel, but ut was too much for hum. He looked an' studied, and +looked an' studied, but he could no see hus way. He durst na heave +tull. She would ha' been sweeput o' all honds an' stucks an' +everythung afore she could a-fetched up. There was naught tull do +but keep on runnun'. An' uf ut worsened we were lost ony way, for +soon or late that overtakun' sea was sure tull sweep us clear over +poop an' all. + +"Dud I say ut was a God-Almighty gale? Ut was worse nor thot. The +devil himself must ha' hod a hond un the brewun' o' ut, ut was thot +fearsome. I ha' looked on some sights, but I om no carun' tull +look on the like o' thot again. No mon dared tull be un hus bunk. +No, nor no mon on the decks. All honds of us stood on top the +house an' held on an' watched. The three mates was on the poop, +with two men ot the wheel, an' the only mon below was thot whusky- +blighted captain snorun' drunk. + +"An' then I see ut comun', a mile away, risun' above all the waves +like an island un the sea--the buggest wave ever I looked upon. +The three mates stood tulgether an' watched ut comun', a-prayun' +like we thot she would no break un passun' us. But ut was no tull +be. Ot the last, when she rose up like a mountain, curlun' above +the stern an' blottun' out the sky, the mates scattered, the second +an' third runnun' for the mizzen-shrouds an' climbun' up, but the +first runnun' tull the wheel tull lend a hond. He was a brave men, +thot Samuel Henan. He run straight un tull the face o' thot father +o' all waves, no thunkun' on humself but thunkun' only o' the shup. +The two men was lashed tull the wheel, but he would be ready tull +hond un the case they was kult. An' then she took ut. We on the +house could no see the poop for the thousand tons o' watter thot +hod hut ut. Thot wave cleaned them out, took everythung along wuth +ut--the two mates, climbun' up the mizzen-ruggun', Samuel Henan +runnun' tull the wheel, the two men ot the wheel, aye, an' the +wheel utself. We never saw aught o' them, for she broached tull +what o' the wheel goun', an' two men o' us was drownded off the +house, no tull mention the carpenter thot we pucked up ot the break +o' the poop wuth every bone o' hus body broke tull he was like so +much jelly." + +And here enters the marvel of it, the miraculous wonder of that +woman's heroic spirit. Margaret Henan was forty-seven when the +news came home of the loss of Samuel; and it was not long after +that the unbelievable rumour went around Island McGill. I say +unbelievable. Island McGill would not believe. Doctor Hall pooh- +pooh'd it. Everybody laughed at it as a good joke. They traced +back the gossip to Sara Dack, servant to the Henans', and who alone +lived with Margaret and her husband. But Sara Dack persisted in +her assertion and was called a low-mouthed liar. One or two dared +question Tom Henan himself, but beyond black looks and curses for +their presumption they elicited nothing from him. + +The rumour died down, and the island fell to discussing in all its +ramifications the loss of the Grenoble in the China seas, with all +her officers and half her crew born and married on Island McGill. +But the rumour would not stay down. Sara Dack was louder in her +assertions, the looks Tom Henan cast about him were blacker than +ever, and Dr. Hall, after a visit to the Henan house, no longer +pooh-pooh'd. Then Island McGill sat up, and there was a tremendous +wagging of tongues. It was unnatural and ungodly. The like had +never been heard. And when, as time passed, the truth of Sara +Dack's utterances was manifest, the island folk decided, like the +bos'n of the Starry Grace, that only the devil could have had a +hand in so untoward a happening. And the infatuated woman, so Sara +Dack reported, insisted that it would be a boy. "Eleven bairns ha' +I borne," she said; "sux o' them lossies an' five o' them loddies. +An' sunce there be balance un all thungs, so wull there be balance +wuth me. Sux o' one an' half a dozen o' the other--there uz the +balance, an' oz sure oz the sun rises un the marnun', thot sure +wull ut be a boy." + +And boy it was, and a prodigy. Dr. Hall raved about its +unblemished perfection and massive strength, and wrote a brochure +on it for the Dublin Medical Society as the most interesting case +of the sort in his long career. When Sara Dack gave the babe's +unbelievable weight, Island McGill refused to believe and once +again called her liar. But when Doctor Hall attested that he had +himself weighed it and seen it tip that very notch, Island McGill +held its breath and accepted whatever report Sara Dack made of the +infant's progress or appetite. And once again Margaret Henan +carried a babe to Belfast and had it christened Samuel. + + +"Oz good oz gold ut was," said Sara Dack to me. + +Sara, at the time I met her, was a buxom, phlegmatic spinster of +sixty, equipped with an experience so tragic and unusual that +though her tongue ran on for decades its output would still be of +imperishable interest to her cronies. + +"Oz good oz good," said Sara Dack. "Ut never fretted. Sut ut down +un the sun by the hour an' never a sound ut would make oz long oz +ut was no hungered! An' thot strong! The grup o' uts honds was +like a mon's. I mind me, when ut was but hours old, ut grupped me +so mighty thot I fetched a scream I was thot frightened. Ut was +the punk o' health. Ut slept an' ate, an' grew. Ut never +bothered. Never a night's sleep ut lost tull no one, nor ever a +munut's, an' thot wuth cuttin' uts teeth an' all. An' Margaret +would dandle ut on her knee an' ask was there ever so fine a loddie +un the three Kungdoms. + +"The way ut grew! Ut was un keepun' wuth the way ut ate. Ot a +year ut was the size o' a bairn of two. Ut was slow tull walk an' +talk. Exceptun' for gurgly noises un uts throat an' for creepun' +on all fours, ut dudna monage much un the walkun' an' talkun' line. +But thot was tull be expected from the way ut grew. Ut all went +tull growun' strong an' healthy. An' even old Tom Henan cheered up +ot the might of ut an' said was there ever the like o' ut un the +three Kungdoms. Ut was Doctor Hall thot first suspicioned, I mind +me well, though ut was luttle I dreamt what he was up tull ot the +time. I seehum holdun' thungs' un fronto' luttle Sammy's eyes, an' +a-makun' noises, loud an' soft, an' far an' near, un luttle Sammy's +ears. An' then I see Doctor Hall go away, wrunklun' hus eyebrows +an' shakun' hus head like the bairn was ailun'. But he was no +ailun', oz I could swear tull, me a-seeun' hum eat an' grow. But +Doctor Hall no said a word tull Margaret an' I was no for guessun' +the why he was sore puzzled. + +"I mind me when luttle Sammy first spoke. He was two years old an' +the size of a child o five, though he could no monage the walkun' +yet but went around on all fours, happy an' contented-like an' +makun' no trouble oz long oz he was fed promptly, which was onusual +often. I was hangun' the wash on the line ot the time when out he +comes, on all fours, hus bug head waggun' tull an' fro an' blunkun' +un the sun. An' then, suddent, he talked. I was thot took a-back +I near died o' fright, an' fine I knew ut then, the shakun' o' +Doctor Hall's head. Talked? Never a bairn on Island McGill talked +so loud an' tull such purpose. There was no mustakun' ut. I stood +there all tremblun' an' shakun'. Little Sammy was brayun'. I tell +you, sir, he was brayun' like an ass--just like thot,--loud an' +long an' cheerful tull ut seemed hus lungs ud crack. + +"He was a eediot--a great, awful, monster eediot. Ut was after he +talked thot Doctor Hall told Margaret, but she would no believe. +Ut would all come right, she said. Ut was growun' too fast for +aught else. Guv ut time, said she, an' we would see. But old Tom +Henan knew, an' he never held up hus head again. He could no abide +the thung, an' would no brung humsel' tull touch ut, though I om no +denyun' he was fair fascinated by ut. Mony the time, I see hum +watchun' of ut around a corner, lookun' ot ut tull hus eyes fair +bulged wuth the horror; an' when ut brayed old Tom ud stuck hus +fungers tull hus ears an' look thot miserable I could a-puttied +hum. + +"An' bray ut could! Ut was the only thung ut could do besides eat +an' grow. Whenever ut was hungry ut brayed, an' there was no +stoppun' ut save wuth food. An' always of a marnun', when first ut +crawled tull the kutchen-door an' blunked out ot the sun, ut +brayed. An' ut was brayun' that brought about uts end. + +"I mind me well. Ut was three years old an' oz bug oz a led o' +ten. Old Tom hed been goun' from bed tull worse, ploughun' up an' +down the fields an' talkun' an' mutterun' tull humself. On the +marnun' o' the day I mind me, he was suttun' on the bench outside +the kutchen, a-futtun' the handle tull a puck-axe. Unbeknown, the +monster eediot crawled tull the door an' brayed after hus fashion +ot the sun. I see old Tom start up an' look. An' there was the +monster eediot, waggun' uts bug head an' blunkun' an' brayun' like +the great bug ass ut was. Ut was too much for Tom. Somethun' went +wrong wuth hum suddent-like. He jumped tull hus feet an' fetched +the puck-handle down on the monster eediot's head. An' he hut ut +again an' again like ut was a mod dog an' hum afeard o' ut. An' he +went straight tull the stable an' hung humsel' tull a rafter. An' +I was no for stoppun' on after such-like, an' I went tull stay +along wuth me suster thot was married tull John Martin an' +comfortable-off." + + +I sat on the bench by the kitchen door and regarded Margaret Henan, +while with her callous thumb she pressed down the live fire of her +pipe and gazed out across the twilight-sombred fields. It was the +very bench Tom Henan had sat upon that last sanguinary day of life. +And Margaret sat in the doorway where the monster, blinking at the +sun, had so often wagged its head and brayed. We had been talking +for an hour, she with that slow certitude of eternity that so +befitted her; and, for the life of me, I could lay no finger on the +motives that ran through the tangled warp and woof of her. Was she +a martyr to Truth? Did she have it in her to worship at so +abstract a shrine? Had she conceived Abstract Truth to be the one +high goal of human endeavour on that day of long ago when she named +her first-born Samuel? Or was hers the stubborn obstinacy of the +ox? the fixity of purpose of the balky horse? the stolidity of the +self-willed peasant-mind? Was it whim or fancy?--the one streak of +lunacy in what was otherwise an eminently rational mind? Or, +reverting, was hers the spirit of a Bruno? Was she convinced of +the intellectual rightness of the stand she had taken? Was hers a +steady, enlightened opposition to superstition? or--and a subtler +thought--was she mastered by some vaster, profounder superstition, +a fetish-worship of which the Alpha and the Omega was the cryptic +SAMUEL? + +"Wull ye be tellun' me," she said, "thot uf the second Samuel hod +been named Larry thot he would no hov fell un the hot watter an' +drownded? Atween you an' me, sir, an' ye are untellugent-lookun' +tull the eye, would the name hov made ut onyways dufferent? Would +the washun' no be done thot day uf he hod been Larry or Michael? +Would hot watter no be hot, an' would hot watter no burn uf he hod +hod ony other name but Samuel?" + +I acknowledged the justice of her contention, and she went on. + +"Do a wee but of a name change the plans o' God? Do the world run +by hut or muss, an' be God a weak, shully-shallyun' creature thot +ud alter the fate an' destiny o' thungs because the worm Margaret +Henan seen fut tull name her bairn Samuel? There be my son Jamie. +He wull no sign a Rooshan-Funn un hus crew because o' believun' +thot Rooshan-Funns do be monajun' the wunds an' hov the makun' o' +bod weather. Wull you be thunkun' so? Wull you be thunkun' thot +God thot makes the wunds tull blow wull bend Hus head from on high +tull lussen tull the word o' a greasy Rooshan-Funn un some dirty +shup's fo'c'sle?" + +I said no, certainly not; but she was not to be set aside from +pressing home the point of her argument. + +"Then wull you be thunkun' thot God thot directs the stars un their +courses, an' tull whose mighty foot the world uz but a footstool, +wull you be thunkun' thot He wull take a spite again' Margaret +Henan an' send a bug wave off the Cape tull wash her son un tull +eternity, all because she was for namun' hum Samuel?" + +"But why Samuel?" I asked. + +"An' thot I dinna know. I wantud ut so." + +"But WHY did you want it so?" + +"An' uz ut me thot would be answerun' a such-like question? Be +there ony mon luvun' or dead thot can answer? Who can tell the WHY +o' like? My Jamie was fair daft on buttermilk, he would drunk ut +tull, oz he said humself, hus back teeth was awash. But my Tumothy +could no abide buttermilk. I like tull lussen tull the thunder +growlun' an' roarun', an' rampajun'. My Katie could no abide the +noise of ut, but must scream an' flutter an' go runnun' for the +mudmost o' a feather-bed. Never yet hov I heard the answer tull +the WHY o' like, God alone hoz thot answer. You an' me be mortal +an' we canna know. Enough for us tull know what we like an' what +we duslike. I LIKE--thot uz the first word an' the last. An' +behind thot like no men can go an' find the WHY o' ut. I LIKE +Samuel, an' I like ut well. Ut uz a sweet name, an' there be a +rollun' wonder un the sound o' ut thot passes onderstandun'." + +The twilight deepened, and in the silence I gazed upon that +splendid dome of a forehead which time could not mar, at the width +between the eyes, and at the eyes themselves--clear, out-looking, +and wide-seeing. She rose to her feet with an air of dismissing +me, saying-- + +"Ut wull be a dark walk home, an' there wull be more thon a +sprunkle o' wet un the sky." + +"Have you any regrets, Margaret Henan?" I asked, suddenly and +without forethought. + +She studied me a moment. + +"Aye, thot I no ha' borne another son." + +"And you would . . .?" I faltered. + +"Aye, thot I would," she answered. "Ut would ha' been hus name." + +I went down the dark road between the hawthorn hedges puzzling over +the why of like, repeating SAMUEL to myself and aloud and listening +to the rolling wonder in its sound that had charmed her soul and +led her life in tragic places. SAMUEL! There was a rolling wonder +in the sound. Aye, there was! + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG *** + +This file should be named sstrg10.txt or sstrg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, sstrg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, sstrg10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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