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diff --git a/7443-8.txt b/7443-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9a941f --- /dev/null +++ b/7443-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11585 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Windy McPherson's Son, by Sherwood Anderson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Windy McPherson's Son + +Author: Sherwood Anderson + + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7443] +This file was first posted on April 30, 2003 +Last Updated: May 31, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINDY MCPHERSON'S SON *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, John R. Bilderback, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + +WINDY MCPHERSON'S SON + +By Sherwood Anderson + + + +To The Living Men And Women Of My Own Middle Western Home Town This Book +Is Dedicated + + + + +WINDY MCPHERSON'S SON + + + + +BOOK I + + + +CHAPTER I + + +At the beginning of the long twilight of a summer evening, Sam +McPherson, a tall big-boned boy of thirteen, with brown hair, black +eyes, and an amusing little habit of tilting his chin in the air as he +walked, came upon the station platform of the little corn-shipping +town of Caxton in Iowa. It was a board platform, and the boy walked +cautiously, lifting his bare feet and putting them down with extreme +deliberateness on the hot, dry, cracked planks. Under one arm he carried +a bundle of newspapers. A long black cigar was in his hand. + +In front of the station he stopped; and Jerry Donlin, the baggage-man, +seeing the cigar in his hand, laughed, and slowly drew the side of his +face up into a laboured wink. + +"What is the game to-night, Sam?" he asked. + +Sam stepped to the baggage-room door, handed him the cigar, and +began giving directions, pointing into the baggage-room, intent and +business-like in the face of the Irishman's laughter. Then, turning, he +walked across the station platform to the main street of the town, his +eyes bent on the ends of his fingers on which he was making computations +with his thumb. Jerry looked after him, grinning so that his red gums +made a splash of colour on his bearded face. A gleam of paternal pride +lit his eyes and he shook his head and muttered admiringly. Then, +lighting the cigar, he went down the platform to where a wrapped +bundle of newspapers lay against the building, under the window of the +telegraph office, and taking it in his arm disappeared, still grinning, +into the baggage-room. + +Sam McPherson walked down Main Street, past the shoe store, the bakery, +and the candy store kept by Penny Hughes, toward a group lounging at +the front of Geiger's drug store. Before the door of the shoe store he +paused a moment, and taking a small note-book from his pocket ran his +finger down the pages, then shaking his head continued on his way, again +absorbed in doing sums on his fingers. + +Suddenly, from among the men by the drug store, a roaring song broke the +evening quiet of the street, and a voice, huge and guttural, brought a +smile to the boy's lips: + + "He washed the windows and he swept the floor, + And he polished up the handle of the big front door. + He polished that handle so carefullee, + That now he's the ruler of the queen's navee." + +The singer, a short man with grotesquely wide shoulders, wore a long +flowing moustache, and a black coat, covered with dust, that reached to +his knees. He held a smoking briar pipe in his hand, and with it beat +time for a row of men sitting on a long stone under the store window and +pounding on the sidewalk with their heels to make a chorus for the song. +Sam's smile broadened into a grin as he looked at the singer, Freedom +Smith, a buyer of butter and eggs, and past him at John Telfer, the +orator, the dandy, the only man in town, except Mike McCarthy, who kept +his trousers creased. Among all the men of Caxton, Sam most admired +John Telfer and in his admiration had struck upon the town's high light. +Telfer loved good clothes and wore them with an air, and never allowed +Caxton to see him shabbily or indifferently dressed, laughingly +declaring that it was his mission in life to give tone to the town. + +John Telfer had a small income left him by his father, once a banker +in the town, and in his youth he had gone to New York to study art, and +later to Paris; but lacking ability or industry to get on had come back +to Caxton where he had married Eleanor Millis, a prosperous milliner. +They were the most successful married pair in Caxton, and after years +of life together they were still in love; were never indifferent to +each other, and never quarrelled; Telfer treated his wife with as much +consideration and respect as though she were a sweetheart, or a guest in +his house, and she, unlike most of the wives in Caxton, never ventured +to question his goings and comings, but left him free to live his own +life in his own way while she attended to the millinery business. + +At the age of forty-five John Telfer was a tall, slender, fine looking +man, with black hair and a little black pointed beard, and with +something lazy and care-free in his every movement and impulse. Dressed +in white flannels, with white shoes, a jaunty cap upon his head, +eyeglasses hanging from a gold chain, and a cane lightly swinging from +his hand, he made a figure that might have passed unnoticed on the +promenade before some fashionable summer hotel, but that seemed a breach +of the laws of nature when seen on the streets of a corn-shipping town +in Iowa. And Telfer was aware of the extraordinary figure he cut; it was +a part of his programme of life. Now as Sam approached he laid a hand on +Freedom Smith's shoulder to check the song, and, with his eyes twinkling +with good-humour, began thrusting with his cane at the boy's feet. + +"He will never be ruler of the queen's navee," he declared, laughing and +following the dancing boy about in a wide circle. "He is a little mole +that works underground intent upon worms. The trick he has of tilting up +his nose is only his way of smelling out stray pennies. I have it from +Banker Walker that he brings a basket of them into the bank every day. +One of these days he will buy the town and put it into his vest pocket." + +Circling about on the stone sidewalk and dancing to escape the flying +cane, Sam dodged under the arm of Valmore, a huge old blacksmith with +shaggy clumps of hair on the back of his hands, and sought refuge +between him and Freedom Smith. The blacksmith's hand stole out and lay +upon the boy's shoulder. Telfer, his legs spread apart and the cane +hooked upon his arm, began rolling a cigarette; Geiger, a yellow skinned +man with fat cheeks and with hands clasped over his round paunch, smoked +a black cigar, and as he sent each puff into the air, grunted forth his +satisfaction with life. He was wishing that Telfer, Freedom Smith, +and Valmore, instead of moving on to their nightly nest at the back of +Wildman's grocery, would come into his place for the evening. He +thought he would like to have the three of them there night after night +discussing the doings of the world. + +Quiet once more settled down upon the sleepy street. Over Sam's +shoulder, Valmore and Freedom Smith talked of the coming corn crop and +the growth and prosperity of the country. + +"Times are getting better about here, but the wild things are almost +gone," said Freedom, who in the winter bought hides and pelts. + +The men sitting on the stone beneath the window watched with idle +interest Telfer's labours with paper and tobacco. "Young Henry Kerns +has got married," observed one of them, striving to make talk. "He +has married a girl from over Parkertown way. She gives lessons in +painting--china painting--kind of an artist, you know." + +An ejaculation of disgust broke from Telfer: his fingers trembled and +the tobacco that was to have been the foundation of his evening smoke +rained on the sidewalk. + +"An artist!" he exclaimed, his voice tense with excitement. "Who said +artist? Who called her that?" He glared fiercely about. "Let us have an +end to this blatant misuse of fine old words. To say of one that he is +an artist is to touch the peak of praise." + +Throwing his cigarette paper after the scattered tobacco he thrust +one hand into his trouser pocket. With the other he held the cane, +emphasising his points by ringing taps upon the pavement. Geiger, taking +the cigar between his fingers, listened with open mouth to the outburst +that followed. Valmore and Freedom Smith dropped their conversation and +with broad smiles upon their faces gave attention, and Sam McPherson, +his eyes round with wonder and admiration, felt again the thrill that +always ran through him under the drum beats of Telfer's eloquence. + +"An artist is one who hungers and thirsts after perfection, not one +who dabs flowers upon plates to choke the gullets of diners," declared +Telfer, setting himself for one of the long speeches with which he loved +to astonish the men of Caxton, and glaring down at those seated upon the +stone. "It is the artist who, among all men, has the divine audacity. +Does he not hurl himself into a battle in which is engaged against him +all of the accumulative genius of the world?" + +Pausing, he looked about for an opponent upon whom he might pour the +flood of his eloquence, but on all sides smiles greeted him. Undaunted, +he rushed again to the charge. + +"A business man--what is he?" he demanded. "He succeeds by outwitting +the little minds with which he comes in contact. A scientist is of +more account--he pits his brains against the dull unresponsiveness of +inanimate matter and a hundredweight of black iron he makes do the work +of a hundred housewives. But an artist tests his brains against the +greatest brains of all times; he stands upon the peak of life and hurls +himself against the world. A girl from Parkertown who paints flowers +upon dishes to be called an artist--ugh! Let me spew forth the thought! +Let me cleanse my mouth! A man should have a prayer upon his lips who +utters the word artist!" + +"Well, we can't all be artists and the woman can paint flowers upon +dishes for all I care," spoke up Valmore, laughing good naturedly. "We +can't all paint pictures and write books." + +"We do not want to be artists--we do not dare to be," shouted Telfer, +whirling and shaking his cane at Valmore. "You have a misunderstanding +of the word." + +He straightened his shoulders and threw out his chest and the boy +standing beside the blacksmith threw up his chin, unconsciously +imitating the swagger of the man. + +"I do not paint pictures; I do not write books; yet am I an artist," +declared Telfer, proudly. "I am an artist practising the most difficult +of all arts--the art of living. Here in this western village I stand +and fling my challenge to the world. 'On the lip of not the greatest of +you,' I cry, 'has life been more sweet.'" + +He turned from Valmore to the men upon the stone. + +"Make a study of my life," he commanded. "It will be a revelation to +you. With a smile I greet the morning; I swagger in the noontime; and +in the evening, like Socrates of old, I gather a little group of you +benighted villagers about me and toss wisdom into your teeth, striving +to teach you judgment in the use of great words." + +"You talk an almighty lot about yourself, John," grumbled Freedom Smith, +taking his pipe from his mouth. + +"The subject is complex, it is varied, it is full of charm," Telfer +answered, laughing. + +Taking a fresh supply of tobacco and paper from his pocket, he rolled +and lighted a cigarette. His fingers no longer trembled. Flourishing his +cane he threw back his head and blew smoke into the air. He thought +that in spite of the roar of laughter that had greeted Freedom Smith's +comment, he had vindicated the honour of art and the thought made him +happy. + +To the newsboy, who had been leaning against the storefront lost in +admiration, it seemed that he had caught in Telfer's talk an echo of the +kind of talk that must go on among men in the big outside world. Had +not this Telfer travelled far? Had he not lived in New York and Paris? +Without understanding the sense of what had been said, Sam felt that it +must be something big and conclusive. When from the distance there came +the shriek of a locomotive, he stood unmoved, trying to comprehend the +meaning of Telfer's outburst over the lounger's simple statement. + +"There's the seven forty-five," cried Telfer, sharply. "Is the war +between you and Fatty at an end? Are we going to lose our evening's +diversion? Has Fatty bluffed you out or are you growing rich and lazy +like Papa Geiger here?" + +Springing from his place beside the blacksmith and grasping the bundle +of newspapers, Sam ran down the street, Telfer, Valmore, Freedom Smith +and the loungers following more slowly. + +When the evening train from Des Moines stopped at Caxton, a blue-coated +train news merchant leaped hurriedly to the platform and began looking +anxiously about. + +"Hurry, Fatty," rang out Freedom Smith's huge voice, "Sam's already half +through one car." + +The young man called "Fatty" ran up and down the station platform. +"Where is that bundle of Omaha papers, you Irish loafer?" he shouted, +shaking his fist at Jerry Donlin who stood upon a truck at the front of +the train, up-ending trunks into the baggage car. + +Jerry paused with a trunk dangling in mid-air. "In the baggage-room, of +course. Hurry, man. Do you want the kid to work the whole train?" + +An air of something impending hung over the idlers upon the platform, +the train crew, and even the travelling men who began climbing off the +train. The engineer thrust his head out of the cab; the conductor, a +dignified looking man with a grey moustache, threw back his head and +shook with mirth; a young man with a suit-case in his hand and a long +pipe in his mouth ran to the door of the baggage-room, calling, "Hurry! +Hurry, Fatty! The kid is working the entire train. You won't be able to +sell a paper." + +The fat young man ran from the baggage-room to the platform and shouted +again to Jerry Donlin, who was now slowly pushing the empty truck along +the platform. From the train came a clear voice calling, "Latest Omaha +papers! Have your change ready! Fatty, the train newsboy, has fallen +down a well! Have your change ready, gentlemen!" + +Jerry Donlin, followed by Fatty, again disappeared from sight. The +conductor, waving his hand, jumped upon the steps of the train. The +engineer pulled in his head and the train began to move. + +The fat young man emerged from the baggage-room, swearing revenge upon +the head of Jerry Donlin. "There was no need to put it under a mail +sack!" he shouted, shaking his fist. "I'll be even with you for this." + +Followed by the shouts of the travelling men and the laughter of the +idlers upon the platform he climbed upon the moving train and began +running from car to car. Off the last car dropped Sam McPherson, a smile +upon his lips, the bundle of newspapers gone, his pocket jingling with +coins. The evening's entertainment for the town of Caxton was at an end. + +John Telfer, standing by the side of Valmore, waved his cane in the air +and began talking. + +"Beat him again, by Gad!" he exclaimed. "Bully for Sam! Who says the +spirit of the old buccaneers is dead? That boy didn't understand what I +said about art, but he is an artist just the same!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Windy McPherson, the father of the Caxton newsboy, Sam McPherson, had +been war touched. The civilian clothes that he wore caused an itching +of the skin. He could not forget that he had once been a sergeant in a +regiment of infantry and had commanded a company through a battle fought +in ditches along a Virginia country road. He chafed under the fact of +his present obscure position in life. Had he been able to replace his +regimentals with the robes of a judge, the felt hat of a statesman, or +even with the night stick of a village marshal life might have retained +something of its sweetness, but to have ended by becoming an obscure +housepainter in a village that lived by raising corn and by feeding that +corn to red steers--ugh!--the thought made him shudder. He looked with +envy at the blue coat and the brass buttons of the railroad agent; he +tried vainly to get into the Caxton Cornet Band; he got drunk to forget +his humiliation and in the end he fell to loud boasting and to the +nursing of a belief within himself that in truth not Lincoln nor Grant +but he himself had thrown the winning die in the great struggle. In his +cups he said as much and the Caxton corn grower, punching his neighbour +in the ribs, shook with delight over the statement. + +When Sam was a twelve year old, barefooted boy upon the streets a kind +of backwash of the wave of glory that had swept over Windy McPherson in +the days of '61 lapped upon the shores of the Iowa village. That strange +manifestation called the A. P. A. movement brought the old soldier to +a position of prominence in the community. He founded a local branch +of the organisation; he marched at the head of a procession through the +streets; he stood on a corner and pointing a trembling forefinger +to where the flag on the schoolhouse waved beside the cross of Rome, +shouted hoarsely, "See, the cross rears itself above the flag! We shall +end by being murdered in our beds!" + +But although some of the hard-headed, money-making men of Caxton joined +the movement started by the boasting old soldier and although for the +moment they vied with him in stealthy creepings through the streets to +secret meetings and in mysterious mutterings behind hands the movement +subsided as suddenly as it had begun and only left its leader more +desolate. + +In the little house at the end of the street by the shores of Squirrel +Creek, Sam and his sister Kate regarded their father's warlike +pretensions with scorn. "The butter is low, father's army leg will ache +to-night," they whispered to each other across the kitchen table. + +Following her mother's example, Kate, a tall slender girl of sixteen +and already a bread winner with a clerkship in Winney's drygoods store, +remained silent under Windy's boasting, but Sam, striving to emulate +them, did not always succeed. There was now and then a rebellious +muttering that should have warned Windy. It had once burst into an open +quarrel in which the victor of a hundred battles withdrew defeated from +the field. Windy, half-drunk, had taken an old account book from a shelf +in the kitchen, a relic of his days as a prosperous merchant when he had +first come to Caxton, and had begun reading to the little family a list +of names of men who, he claimed, had been the cause of his ruin. + +"There is Tom Newman, now," he exclaimed excitedly. "Owns a hundred +acres of good corn-growing land and won't pay for the harness on the +backs of his horses or for the ploughs in his barn. The receipt he has +from me is forged. I could put him in prison if I chose. To beat an old +soldier!--to beat one of the boys of '61!--it is shameful!" + +"I have heard of what you owed and what men owed you; you had none the +worst of it," Sam protested coldly, while Kate held her breath and Jane +McPherson, at work over the ironing board in the corner, half turned and +looked silently at the man and the boy, the slightly increased pallor of +her long face the only sign that she had heard. + +Windy had not pressed the quarrel. Standing for a moment in the middle +of the kitchen, holding the book in his hand, he looked from the pale +silent mother by the ironing board to the son now standing and staring +at him, and, throwing the book upon the table with a bang, fled the +house. "You don't understand," he had cried, "you don't understand the +heart of a soldier." + +In a way the man was right. The two children did not understand the +blustering, pretending, inefficient old man. Having moved shoulder to +shoulder with grim, silent men to the consummation of great deeds Windy +could not get the flavour of those days out of his outlook upon life. +Walking half drunk in the darkness along the sidewalks of Caxton on +the evening of the quarrel the man became inspired. He threw back his +shoulders and walked with martial tread; he drew an imaginary sword from +its scabbard and waved it aloft; stopping, he aimed carefully at a body +of imaginary men who advanced yelling toward him across a wheatfield; he +felt that life in making him a housepainter in a farming village in Iowa +and in giving him an unappreciative son had been cruelly unfair; he wept +at the injustice of it. + +The American Civil War was a thing so passionate, so inflaming, so vast, +so absorbing, it so touched to the quick the men and women of those +pregnant days that but a faint echo of it has been able to penetrate +down to our days and to our minds; no real sense of it has as yet crept +into the pages of a printed book; it yet wants its Thomas Carlyle; and +in the end we are put to the need of listening to old fellows boasting +on our village streets to get upon our cheeks the living breath of it. +For four years the men of American cities, villages and farms walked +across the smoking embers of a burning land, advancing and receding as +the flame of that universal, passionate, death-spitting thing swept down +upon them or receded toward the smoking sky-line. Is it so strange that +they could not come home and begin again peacefully painting houses or +mending broken shoes? A something in them cried out. It sent them to +bluster and boast upon the street corners. When people passing continued +to think only of their brick laying and of their shovelling of corn +into cars, when the sons of these war gods walking home at evening and +hearing the vain boastings of the fathers began to doubt even the facts +of the great struggle, a something snapped in their brains and they fell +to chattering and shouting their vain boastings to all as they looked +hungrily about for believing eyes. + +When our own Thomas Carlyle comes to write of our Civil War he will make +much of our Windy McPhersons. He will see something big and pathetic in +their hungry search for auditors and in their endless war talk. He +will go filled with eager curiosity into little G. A. R. halls in the +villages and think of the men who coming there night after night, year +after year, told and re-told endlessly, monotonously, their story of +battle. + +Let us hope that in his fervour for the old fellows he will not fail to +treat tenderly the families of those veteran talkers; the families that +with their breakfasts and their dinners, by the fire at evening, through +fast day and feast day, at weddings and at funerals got again and again +endlessly, everlastingly this flow of war words. Let him reflect that +peaceful men in corn-growing counties do not by choice sleep among the +dogs of war nor wash their linen in the blood of their country's foe. +Let him, in his sympathy with the talkers, remember with kindness the +heroism of the listeners. + + * * * * * + +On a summer day Sam McPherson sat on a box before Wildman's grocery lost +in thought. In his hand he held the little yellow account book and in +this he buried himself, striving to wipe from his consciousness a scene +being enacted before his eyes upon the street. + +The realisation of the fact that his father was a confirmed liar and +braggart had for years cast a shadow over his days and the shadow had +been made blacker by the fact that in a land where the least fortunate +can laugh in the face of want he had more than once stood face to face +with poverty. He believed that the logical answer to the situation was +money in the bank and with all the ardour of his boy's heart he strove +to realise that answer. He wanted to be a money-maker and the totals at +the foot of the pages in the soiled yellow bankbook were the milestones +that marked the progress he had already made. They told him that the +daily struggles with Fatty, the long tramps through Caxton's streets on +bleak winter evenings, and the never-ending Saturday nights when crowds +filled the stores, the sidewalks, and the drinking places, and he worked +among them tirelessly and persistently were not without fruit. + +Suddenly, above the murmur of men's voices on the street, his father's +voice rose loud and insistent. A block further down the street, leaning +against the door of Hunter's jewelry store, Windy talked at the top of +his lungs, pumping his arms up and down with the air of a man making a +stump speech. + +"He is making a fool of himself," thought Sam, and returned to his +bankbook, striving in the contemplation of the totals at the foot of the +pages to shake off the dull anger that had begun to burn in his brain. +Glancing up again, he saw that Joe Wildman, son of the grocer and a +boy of his own age, had joined the group of men laughing and jeering at +Windy. The shadow on Sam's face grew heavier. + +Sam had been at Joe Wildman's house; he knew the air of plenty and of +comfort that hung over it; the table piled high with meat and potatoes; +the group of children laughing and eating to the edge of gluttony; the +quiet, gentle father who amid the clamour and the noise did not raise +his voice, and the well-dressed, bustling, rosy-cheeked mother. As a +contrast to this scene he began to call up in his mind a picture of +life in his own home, getting a kind of perverted pleasure out of his +dissatisfaction with it. He saw the boasting, incompetent father telling +his endless tales of the Civil War and complaining of his wounds; the +tall, stoop-shouldered, silent mother with the deep lines in her long +face, everlastingly at work over her washtub among the soiled clothes; +the silent, hurriedly-eaten meals snatched from the kitchen table; and +the long winter days when ice formed upon his mother's skirts and +Windy idled about town while the little family subsisted upon bowls of +cornmeal mush everlastingly repeated. + +Now, even from where he sat, he could see that his father was half gone +in drink, and knew that he was boasting of his part in the Civil War. +"He is either doing that or telling of his aristocratic family or lying +about his birthplace," he thought resentfully, and unable any longer to +endure the sight of what seemed to him his own degradation, he got up +and went into the grocery where a group of Caxton citizens stood talking +to Wildman of a meeting to be held that morning at the town hall. + +Caxton was to have a Fourth of July celebration. The idea, born in the +heads of the few, had been taken up by the many. Rumours of it had run +through the streets late in May. It had been talked of in Geiger's drug +store, at the back of Wildman's grocery, and in the street before the +New Leland House. John Telfer, the town's one man of leisure, had +for weeks been going from place to place discussing the details with +prominent men. Now a mass meeting was to be held in the hall over +Geiger's drug store and to a man the citizens of Caxton had turned out +for the meeting. The housepainter had come down off his ladder, the +clerks were locking the doors of the stores, men went along the streets +in groups bound for the hall. As they went they shouted to each other. +"The old town has woke up," they called. + +On a corner by Hunter's jewelry store Windy McPherson leaned against a +building and harangued the passing crowd. + +"Let the old flag wave," he shouted excitedly, "let the men of Caxton +show the true blue and rally to the old standards." + +"That's right, Windy, expostulate with them," shouted a wit, and a roar +of laughter drowned Windy's reply. + +Sam McPherson also went to the meeting in the hall. He came out of the +grocery store with Wildman and went along the street looking at the +sidewalk and trying not to see the drunken man talking in front of the +jewelry store. At the hall other boys stood in the stairway or ran up +and down the sidewalk talking excitedly, but Sam was a figure in the +town's life and his right to push in among the men was not questioned. +He squirmed through the mass of legs and secured a seat in a window +ledge where he could watch the men come in and find seats. + +As Caxton's one newsboy Sam had got from his newspaper selling both a +living and a kind of standing in the town's life. To be a newsboy or a +bootblack in a small novel-reading American town is to make a figure in +the world. Do not all of the poor newsboys in the books become great +men and is not this boy who goes among us so industriously day after day +likely to become such a figure? Is it not a duty we of the town owe to +future greatness that we push him forward? So reasoned the men of Caxton +and paid a kind of court to the boy who sat on the window ledge of the +hall while the other boys of the town waited on the sidewalk below. + +John Telfer was chairman of the mass meeting. He was always chairman of +public meetings in Caxton. The industrious silent men of position in +the town envied his easy, bantering style of public address, while +pretending to treat it with scorn. "He talks too much," they said, +making a virtue of their own inability with apt and clever words. + +Telfer did not wait to be appointed chairman of the meeting, but went +forward, climbed the little raised platform at the end of the hall, +and usurped the chairmanship. He walked up and down on the platform +bantering with the crowd, answering gibes, calling to well-known men, +getting and giving keen satisfaction with his talent. When the hall was +filled with men he called the meeting to order, appointed committees and +launched into a harangue. He told of plans made to advertise the big +day in other towns and to get low railroad rates arranged for excursion +parties. The programme, he said, included a musical carnival with brass +bands from other towns, a sham battle by the military company at the +fairgrounds, horse races, speeches from the steps of the town hall, +and fireworks in the evening. "We'll show them a live town here," he +declared, walking up and down the platform and swinging his cane, while +the crowd applauded and shouted its approval. + +When a call came for voluntary subscriptions to pay for the fun, the +audience quieted down. One or two men got up and started to go out, +grumbling that it was a waste of money. The fate of the celebration was +on the knees of the gods. + +Telfer arose to the occasion. He called out the names of the departing, +and made jests at their expense so that they dropped back into their +chairs unable to face the roaring laughter of the crowd, and shouted +to a man at the back of the hall to close and bolt the door. Men began +getting up in various parts of the hall and calling out sums, Telfer +repeating the name and the amount in a loud voice to young Tom Jedrow, +clerk in the bank, who wrote them down in a book. When the amount +subscribed did not meet with his approval, he protested and the crowd +backing him up forced the increase he demanded. When a man did not rise, +he shouted at him and the man answered back an amount. + +Suddenly in the hall a diversion arose. Windy McPherson emerged from the +crowd at the back of the hall and walked down the centre aisle to the +platform. He walked unsteadily straightening his shoulders and thrusting +out his chin. When he got to the front of the hall he took a roll of +bills from his pocket and threw it on the platform at the chairman's +feet. "From one of the boys of '61," he announced in a loud voice. + +The crowd shouted and clapped its hands with delight as Telfer picked +up the bills and ran his finger over them. "Seventeen dollars from our +hero, the mighty McPherson," he shouted while the bank clerk wrote the +name and the amount in the book and the crowd continued to make merry +over the title given the drunken soldier by the chairman. + +The boy on the window ledge slipped to the floor and stood with burning +cheeks behind the mass of men. He knew that at home his mother was +doing a family washing for Lesley, the shoe merchant, who had given five +dollars to the Fourth-of-July fund, and the resentment he had felt on +seeing his father talking to the crowd before the jewelry store blazed +up anew. + +After the taking of subscriptions, men in various parts of the hall +began making suggestions for added features for the great day. To some +of the speakers the crowd listened respectfully, at others they +hooted. An old man with a grey beard told a long rambling story of a +Fourth-of-July celebration of his boyhood. When voices interrupted he +protested and shook his fist in the air, pale with indignation. + +"Oh, sit down, old daddy," shouted Freedom Smith and a murmur of +applause greeted this sensible suggestion. + +Another man got up and began to talk. He had an idea. "We will have," he +said, "a bugler mounted on a white horse who will ride through the town +at dawn blowing the reveille. At midnight he will stand on the steps of +the town hall and blow taps to end the day." + +The crowd applauded. The idea had caught their fancy and had instantly +taken a place in their minds as one of the real events of the day. + +Again Windy McPherson emerged from the crowd at the back of the hall. +Raising his hand for silence he told the crowd that he was a bugler, +that he had been a regimental bugler for two years during the Civil War. +He said that he would gladly volunteer for the place. + +The crowd shouted and John Telfer waved his hand. "The white horse for +you, McPherson," he said. + +Sam McPherson wriggled along the wall and out at the now unbolted door. +He was filled with astonishment at his father's folly, and was still +more astonished at the folly of these other men in accepting his +statement and handing over the important place for the big day. He knew +that his father must have had some part in the war as he was a member of +the G. A. R., but he had no faith at all in the stories he had heard +him relate of his experiences in the war. Sometimes he caught himself +wondering if there ever had been such a war and thought that it must be +a lie like everything else in the life of Windy McPherson. For years he +had wondered why some sensible solid person like Valmore or Wildman did +not rise, and in a matter-of-fact way tell the world that no such thing +as the Civil War had ever been fought, that it was merely a figment in +the minds of pompous old men demanding unearned glory of their fellows. +Now hurrying along the street with burning cheeks, he decided that after +all there must have been such a war. He had had the same feeling about +birthplaces and there could be no doubt that people were born. He +had heard his father claim as his birthplace Kentucky, Texas, North +Carolina, Louisiana and Scotland. The thing had left a kind of defect in +his mind. To the end of his life when he heard a man tell the place of +his birth he looked up suspiciously, and a shadow of doubt crossed his +mind. + +From the mass meeting Sam went home to his mother and presented the case +bluntly. "The thing will have to be stopped," he declared, standing +with blazing eyes before her washtub. "It is too public. He can't blow +a bugle; I know he can't. The whole town will have another laugh at our +expense." + +Jane McPherson listened in silence to the boy's outburst, then, turning, +went back to rubbing clothes, avoiding his eyes. + +With his hands thrust into his trousers pocket Sam stared sullenly at +the ground. A sense of justice told him not to press the matter, but as +he walked away from the washtub and out at the kitchen door, he hoped +there would be plain talk of the matter at supper time. "The old fool!" +he protested, addressing the empty street. "He is going to make a show +of himself again." + +When Windy McPherson came home that evening, something in the eyes of +the silent wife, and the sullen face of the boy, startled him. He passed +over lightly his wife's silence but looked closely at his son. He felt +that he faced a crisis. In the emergency he was magnificent. With a +flourish, he told of the mass meeting, and declared that the citizens +of Caxton had arisen as one man to demand that he take the responsible +place as official bugler. Then, turning, he glared across the table at +his son. + +Sam, openly defiant, announced that he did not believe his father +capable of blowing a bugle. + +Windy roared with amazement. He rose from the table declaring in a loud +voice that the boy had wronged him; he swore that he had been for two +years bugler on the staff of a colonel, and launched into a long story +of a surprise by the enemy while his regiment lay asleep in their tents, +and of his standing in the face of a storm of bullets and blowing his +comrades to action. Putting one hand on his forehead he rocked back and +forth as though about to fall, declaring that he was striving to +keep back the tears wrenched from him by the injustice of his son's +insinuation and, shouting so that his voice carried far down the street, +he declared with an oath that the town of Caxton should ring and echo +with his bugling as the sleeping camp had echoed with it that night in +the Virginia wood. Then dropping again into his chair, and resting his +head upon his hand, he assumed a look of patient resignation. + +Windy McPherson was victorious. In the little house a great stir +and bustle of preparation arose. Putting on his white overalls and +forgetting for the time his honourable wounds the father went day after +day to his work as a housepainter. He dreamed of a new blue uniform for +the great day and in the end achieved the realisation of his dreams, not +however without material assistance from what was known in the house +as "Mother's Wash Money." And the boy, convinced by the story of the +midnight attack in the woods of Virginia, began against his judgment to +build once more an old dream of his father's reformation. Boylike, the +scepticism was thrown to the winds and he entered with zeal into the +plans for the great day. As he went through the quiet residence streets +delivering the late evening papers, he threw back his head and revelled +in the thought of a tall blue-clad figure on a great white horse passing +like a knight before the gaping people. In a fervent moment he even drew +money from his carefully built-up bank account and sent it to a firm in +Chicago to pay for a shining new bugle that would complete the picture +he had in his mind. And when the evening papers were distributed he +hurried home to sit on the porch before the house discussing with his +sister Kate the honours that had alighted upon their family. + + * * * * * + +With the coming of dawn on the great day the three McPhersons hurried +hand in hand toward Main Street. In the street, on all sides of them, +they saw people coming out of houses rubbing their eyes and buttoning +their coats as they went along the sidewalk. All of Caxton seemed +abroad. + +In Main Street the people were packed on the sidewalk, and massed on the +curb and in the doorways of the stores. Heads appeared at windows, flags +waved from roofs or hung from ropes stretched across the street, and a +great murmur of voices broke the silence of the dawn. + +Sam's heart beat so that he was hard put to it to keep back the tears +from his eyes. He thought with a gasp of the days of anxiety that had +passed when the new bugle had not come from the Chicago company, and in +retrospect he suffered again the horror of the days of waiting. It +had been all important. He could not blame his father for raving and +shouting about the house, he himself had felt like raving, and had put +another dollar of his savings into telegrams before the treasure was +finally in his hands. Now, the thought that it might not have come +sickened him, and a little prayer of thankfulness rose from his lips. +To be sure one might have been secured from a nearby town, but not a new +shining one to go with his father's new blue uniform. + +A cheer broke from the crowd massed along the street. Into the street +rode a tall figure seated upon a white horse. The horse was from +Culvert's livery and the boys there had woven ribbons into its mane and +tail. Windy McPherson, sitting very straight in the saddle and looking +wonderfully striking in the new blue uniform and the broad-brimmed +campaign hat, had the air of a conqueror come to receive the homage of +the town. He wore a gold band across his chest and against his hip +rested the shining bugle. With stern eyes he looked down upon the +people. + +The lump in the throat of the boy hurt more and more. A great wave of +pride ran over him, submerging him. In a moment he forgot all the past +humiliations the father had brought upon his family, and understood +why his mother remained silent when he, in his blindness, had wanted to +protest against her seeming indifference. Glancing furtively up he saw +a tear lying upon her cheek and felt that he too would like to sob aloud +his pride and happiness. + +Slowly and with stately stride the horse walked up the street between +the rows of silent waiting people. In front of the town hall the tall +military figure, rising in the saddle, took one haughty look at the +multitude, and then, putting the bugle to his lips, blew. + +Out of the bugle came only a thin piercing shriek followed by a squawk. +Again Windy put the bugle to his lips and again the same dismal +squawk was his only reward. On his face was a look of helpless boyish +astonishment. + +And in a moment the people knew. It was only another of Windy +McPherson's pretensions. He couldn't blow a bugle at all. + +A great shout of laughter rolled down the street. Men and women sat on +the curbstones and laughed until they were tired. Then, looking at the +figure upon the motionless horse, they laughed again. + +Windy looked about him with troubled eyes. It is doubtful if he had ever +had a bugle to his lips until that moment, but he was filled with wonder +and astonishment that the reveille did not roll forth. He had heard +the thing a thousand times and had it clearly in his mind; with all his +heart he wanted it to roll forth, and could picture the street ringing +with it and the applause of the people; the thing, he felt, was in him, +and it was only a fatal blunder in nature that it did not come out at +the flaring end of the bugle. He was amazed at this dismal end of his +great moment--he was always amazed and helpless before facts. + +The crowd began gathering about the motionless, astonished figure, +laughter continuing to send them off into something near convulsions. +Grasping the bridle of the horse, John Telfer began leading it off up +the street. Boys whooped and shouted at the rider, "Blow! Blow!" + +The three McPhersons stood in a doorway leading into a shoe store. The +boy and the mother, white and speechless with humiliation, dared not +look at each other. In the flood of shame sweeping over them they stared +straight before them with hard, stony eyes. + +The procession led by John Telfer at the bridle of the white horse +marched down the street. Looking up, the eyes of the laughing, shouting +man met those of the boy and a look of pain shot across his face. +Dropping the bridle he hurried away through the crowd. The procession +moved on, and watching their chance the mother and the two children +crept home along side streets, Kate weeping bitterly. Leaving them at +the door Sam went straight on down a sandy road toward a small wood. +"I've got my lesson. I've got my lesson," he muttered over and over as +he went. + +At the edge of the wood he stopped and leaning on a rail fence watched +until he saw his mother come out to the pump in the back yard. She had +begun to draw water for the day's washing. For her also the holiday was +at an end. A flood of tears ran down the boy's cheeks, and he shook his +fist in the direction of the town. "You may laugh at that fool Windy, +but you shall never laugh at Sam McPherson," he cried, his voice shaking +with excitement. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +One evening, when he had grown so that he outtopped Windy, Sam McPherson +returned from his paper route to find his mother arrayed in her black, +church-going dress. An evangelist was at work in Caxton and she had +decided to hear him. Sam shuddered. In the house it was an understood +thing that when Jane McPherson went to church her son went with her. +There was nothing said. Jane McPherson did all things without words, +always there was nothing said. Now she stood waiting in her black +dress when her son came in at the door and he hurriedly put on his best +clothes and went with her to the brick church. + +Valmore, John Telfer, and Freedom Smith, who had taken upon themselves +a kind of common guardianship of the boy and with whom he spent evening +after evening at the back of Wildman's grocery, did not go to church. +They talked of religion and seemed singularly curious and interested in +what other men thought on the subject but they did not allow themselves +to be coaxed into a house of worship. To the boy, who had become a +fourth member of the evening gatherings at the back of the grocery +store, they would not talk of God, answering the direct questions he +sometimes asked by changing the subject. Once Telfer, the reader of +poetry, answered the boy. "Sell papers and fill your pockets with money +but let your soul sleep," he said sharply. + +In the absence of the others Wildman talked more freely. He was a +spiritualist and tried to make Sam see the beauties of that faith. +On long summer afternoons the grocer and the boy spent hours driving +through the streets in a rattling old delivery wagon, the man striving +earnestly to make clear to the boy the shadowy ideas of God that were in +his mind. + +Although Windy McPherson had been the leader of a Bible class in his +youth, and had been a moving spirit at revival meetings during his early +days in Caxton, he no longer went to church and his wife did not ask +him to go. On Sunday mornings he lay abed. If there was work to be done +about the house or yard he complained of his wounds. He complained of +his wounds when the rent fell due, and when there was a shortage of food +in the house. Later in his life and after the death of Jane McPherson +the old soldier married the widow of a farmer by whom he had four +children and with whom he went to church twice on Sunday. Kate wrote +Sam one of her infrequent letters about it. "He has met his match," she +said, and was tremendously pleased. + +In church on Sunday mornings Sam went regularly to sleep, putting his +head on his mother's arm and sleeping throughout the service. Jane +McPherson loved to have the boy there beside her. It was the one thing +in life they did together and she did not mind his sleeping the time +away. Knowing how late he had been upon the streets at the paper selling +on Saturday evenings, she looked at him with eyes filled with tenderness +and sympathy. Once the minister, a man with brown beard and hard, +tightly-closed mouth, spoke to her. "Can't you keep him awake?" he +asked impatiently. "He needs the sleep," she said and hurried past the +minister and out of the church, looking ahead of her and frowning. + +The evening of the evangelist meeting was a summer evening fallen on a +winter month. All day the warm winds had come up from the southwest. Mud +lay soft and deep in the streets and among the little pools of water +on the sidewalks were dry spots from which steam arose. Nature had +forgotten herself. A day that should have sent old fellows to their +nests behind stoves in stores sent them forth to loaf in the sun. The +night fell warm and cloudy. A thunder storm threatened in the month of +February. + +Sam walked along the sidewalk with his mother bound for the brick +church, wearing a new grey overcoat. The night did not demand the +overcoat but Sam wore it out of an excess of pride in its possession. +The overcoat had an air. It had been made by Gunther the tailor after a +design sketched on the back of a piece of wrapping paper by John Telfer +and had been paid for out of the newsboy's savings. The little +German tailor, after a talk with Valmore and Telfer, had made it at a +marvellously low price. Sam swaggered as he walked. + +He did not sleep in church that evening; indeed he found the quiet +church filled with a medley of strange noises. Folding carefully the new +coat and laying it beside him on the seat he looked with interest at +the people, feeling within him something of the nervous excitement with +which the air was charged. The evangelist, a short, athletic-looking man +in a grey business suit, seemed to the boy out of place in the church. +He had the assured business-like air of the travelling men who come to +the New Leland House, and Sam thought he looked like a man who had goods +to be sold. He did not stand quietly back of the pulpit giving out the +text as did the brown-bearded minister, nor did he sit with closed eyes +and clasped hands waiting for the choir to finish singing. While the +choir sang he ran up and down the platform waving his arms and shouting +excitedly to the people on the church benches, "Sing! Sing! Sing! For +the glory of God, sing!" + +When the song was finished, he began talking, quietly at first, of life +in the town. As he talked he grew more and more excited. "The town is a +cesspool of vice!" he shouted. "It reeks with evil! The devil counts it +a suburb of hell!" + +His voice rose, and sweat ran off his face. A sort of frenzy seized him. +He pulled off his coat and throwing it over a chair ran up and down the +platform and into the aisles among the people, shouting, threatening, +pleading. People began to stir uneasily in their seats. Jane McPherson +stared stonily at the back of the woman in front of her. Sam was +horribly frightened. + +The newsboy of Caxton was not without a hunger for religion. Like all +boys he thought much and often of death. In the night he sometimes +awakened cold with fear, thinking that death must be just without the +door of his room waiting for him. When in the winter he had a cold and +coughed, he trembled at the thought of tuberculosis. Once, when he was +taken with a fever, he fell asleep and dreamed that he had died and was +walking on the trunk of a fallen tree over a ravine filled with lost +souls that shrieked with terror. When he awoke he prayed. Had some one +come into his room and heard his prayer he would have been ashamed. + +On winter evenings as he walked through the dark streets with the papers +under his arm he thought of his soul. As he thought a tenderness came +over him; a lump came into his throat and he pitied himself; he felt +that there was something missing in his life, something he wanted very +badly. + +Under John Telfer's influence, the boy, who had quit school to devote +himself to money making, read Walt Whitman and had a season of admiring +his own body with its straight white legs, and the head that was poised +so jauntily on the body. Sometimes he would awaken on summer nights and +be so filled with strange longing that he would creep out of bed and, +pushing open the window, sit upon the floor, his bare legs sticking out +beyond his white nightgown, and, thus sitting, yearn eagerly toward some +fine impulse, some call, some sense of bigness and of leadership that +was absent from the necessities of the life he led. He looked at the +stars and listened to the night noises, so filled with longing that the +tears sprang to his eyes. + +Once, after the affair of the bugle, Jane McPherson had been ill--and +the first touch of the finger of death reaching out to her--had sat with +her son in the warm darkness in the little grass plot at the front of +the house. It was a clear, warm, starlit evening without a moon, and as +the two sat closely together a sense of the coming of death crept over +the mother. + +At the evening meal Windy McPherson had talked voluminously, ranting +and shouting about the house. He said that a housepainter who had a real +sense of colour had no business trying to work in a hole like Caxton. +He had been in trouble with a housewife about a colour he had mixed for +painting a porch floor and at his own table he raved about the woman +and what he declared her lack of even a primitive sense of colour. "I +am sick of it all," he shouted, going out of the house and up the street +with uncertain steps. His wife had been unmoved by his outburst, but in +the presence of the quiet boy whose chair touched her own she trembled +with a strange new fear and began to talk of the life after death, +making effort after effort to get at what she wanted to say, and only +succeeding in finding expression for her thoughts in little sentences +broken by long painful pauses. She told the boy she had no doubt at all +that there was some kind of future life and that she believed she should +see and live with him again after they had finished with this world. + +One day the minister who had been annoyed because he had slept in his +church, stopped Sam on the street to talk to him of his soul. He said +that the boy should be thinking of making himself one of the brothers in +Christ by joining the church. Sam listened silently to the talk of the +man, whom he instinctively disliked, but in his silence felt there was +something insincere. With all his heart he wanted to repeat a sentence +he had heard from the lips of grey-haired, big-fisted Valmore--"How can +they believe and not lead a life of simple, fervent devotion to their +belief?" He thought himself superior to the thin-lipped man who talked +with him and had he been able to express what was in his heart he might +have said, "Look here, man! I am made of different stuff from all the +people there at the church. I am new clay to be moulded into a new man. +Not even my mother is like me. I do not accept your ideas of life just +because you say they are good any more than I accept Windy McPherson +just because he happens to be my father." + +During one winter Sam spent evening after evening reading the Bible in +his room. It was after Kate's marriage--she had got into an affair with +a young farmer that had kept her name upon the tongues of whisperers for +months but was now a housewife on a farm at the edge of a village some +miles from Caxton, and the mother was again at her endless task among +the soiled clothes in the kitchen and Windy McPherson off drinking and +boasting about town. Sam read the book in secret. He had a lamp on a +little stand beside his bed and a novel, lent him by John Telfer, beside +it. When his mother came up the stairway he slipped the Bible under +the cover of the bed and became absorbed in the novel. He thought it +something not quite in keeping with his aims as a business man and a +money getter to be concerned about his soul. He wanted to conceal his +concern but with all his heart wanted to get hold of the message of +the strange book, about which men wrangled hour after hour on winter +evenings in the store. + +He did not get it; and after a time he stopped reading the book. Left to +himself he might have sensed its meaning, but on all sides of him were +the voices of the men--the men at Wildman's who owned to no faith and +yet were filled with dogmatisms as they talked behind the stove in the +grocery; the brown-bearded, thin-lipped minister in the brick church; +the shouting, pleading evangelists who came to visit the town in +the winter; the gentle old grocer who talked vaguely of the spirit +world,--all these voices were at the mind of the boy pleading, +insisting, demanding, not that Christ's simple message that men love +one another to the end, that they work together for the common good, be +accepted, but that their own complex interpretation of his word be taken +to the end that souls be saved. + +In the end the boy of Caxton got to the place where he had a dread +of the word soul. It seemed to him that the mention of the word in +conversation was something shameful and to think of the word or the +shadowy something for which the word stood an act of cowardice. In his +mind the soul became a thing to be hidden away, covered up, not thought +of. One might be allowed to speak of the matter at the moment of death, +but for the healthy man or boy to have the thought of his soul in +his mind or word of it on his lips--one might better become blatantly +profane and go to the devil with a swagger. With delight he imagined +himself as dying and with his last breath tossing a round oath into the +air of his death chamber. + +In the meantime Sam continued to have inexplicable longings and hopes. +He kept surprising himself by the changing aspect of his own viewpoint +of life. He found himself indulging in the most petty meannesses, and +following these with flashes of a kind of loftiness of mind. Looking at +a girl passing in the street, he had unbelievably mean thoughts; and the +next day, passing the same girl, a line caught from the babbling of John +Telfer came to his lips and he went his way muttering, "June's twice +June since she breathed it with me." + +And then into the complex nature of this boy came the sex motive. +Already he dreamed of having women in his arms. He looked shyly at the +ankles of women crossing the street, and listened eagerly when the crowd +about the stove in Wildman's fell to telling smutty stories. He sank +to unbelievable depths of triviality in sordidness, looking shyly into +dictionaries for words that appealed to the animal lust in his queerly +perverted mind and, when he came across it, lost entirely the beauty of +the old Bible tale of Ruth in the suggestion of intimacy between man and +woman that it brought to him. And yet Sam McPherson was no evil-minded +boy. He had, as a matter of fact, a quality of intellectual honesty that +appealed strongly to the clean-minded, simple-hearted old blacksmith +Valmore; he had awakened something like love in the hearts of the women +school teachers in the Caxton schools, at least one of whom continued +to interest herself in him, taking him with her on walks along country +roads, and talking to him constantly of the development of his mind; and +he was the friend and boon companion of Telfer, the dandy, the reader of +poems, the keen lover of life. The boy was struggling to find himself. +One night when the sex call kept him awake he got up and dressed, and +went and stood in the rain by the creek in Miller's pasture. The wind +swept the rain across the face of the water and a sentence flashed +through his mind: "The little feet of the rain run on the water." There +was a quality of almost lyrical beauty in the Iowa boy. + +And this boy, who couldn't get hold of his impulse toward God, whose sex +impulses made him at times mean, at times full of beauty, and who had +decided that the impulse toward bargaining and money getting was the +impulse in him most worth cherishing, now sat beside his mother in +church and watched with wide-open eyes the man who took off his coat, +who sweated profusely, and who called the town in which he lived a +cesspool of vice and its citizens wards of the devil. + +The evangelist from talking of the town began talking instead of heaven +and hell and his earnestness caught the attention of the listening boy +who began seeing pictures. + +Into his mind there came a picture of a burning pit of fire in which +great flames leaped about the heads of the people who writhed in the +pit. "Art Sherman would be there," thought Sam, materialising the +picture he saw; "nothing can save him; he keeps a saloon." + +Filled with pity for the man he saw in the picture of the burning pit, +his mind centered on the person of Art Sherman. He liked Art Sherman. +More than once he had felt the touch of human kindness in the man. The +roaring, blustering saloonkeeper had helped the boy sell and collect +for newspapers. "Pay the kid or get out of the place," the red-faced man +roared at drunken men leaning on the bar. + +And then, looking into the burning pit, Sam thought of Mike McCarthy, +for whom he had at that moment a kind of passion akin to a young girl's +blind devotion to her lover. With a shudder he realised that Mike also +would go into the pit, for he had heard Mike laughing at churches and +declaring there was no God. + +The evangelist ran upon the platform and called to the people demanding +that they stand upon their feet. "Stand up for Jesus," he shouted; +"stand up and be counted among the host of the Lord God." + +In the church people began getting to their feet. Jane McPherson stood +with the others. Sam did not stand. He crept behind his mother's dress, +hoping to pass through the storm unnoticed. The call to the faithful to +stand was a thing to be complied with or resisted as the people might +wish; it was something entirely outside of himself. It did not occur to +him to count himself among either the lost or the saved. + +Again the choir began singing and a businesslike movement began among +the people. Men and women went up and down the aisles clasping the hands +of people in the pews, talking and praying aloud. "Welcome among us," +they said to certain ones who stood upon their feet. "It gladdens our +hearts to see you among us. We are happy at seeing you in the fold among +the saved. It is good to confess Jesus." + +Suddenly a voice from the bench back of him struck terror to Sam's +heart. Jim Williams, who worked in Sawyer's barber shop, was upon his +knees and in a loud voice was praying for the soul of Sam McPherson. +"Lord, help this erring boy who goes up and down in the company of +sinners and publicans," he shouted. + +In a moment the terror of death and the fiery pit that had possessed him +passed, and Sam was filled instead with blind, dumb rage. He remembered +that this same Jim Williams had treated lightly the honour of his sister +at the time of her disappearance, and he wanted to get upon his feet and +pour out his wrath on the head of the man, who, he felt, had betrayed +him. "They would not have seen me," he thought; "this is a fine trick +Jim Williams has played me. I shall be even with him for this." + +He got to his feet and stood beside his mother. He had no qualms about +passing himself off as one of the lambs safely within the fold. His mind +was bent upon quieting Jim Williams' prayers and avoiding the attention +of the people. + +The minister began calling on the standing people to testify of their +salvation. From various parts of the church the people spoke out, some +loudly and boldly and with a ring of confidence in their voices, some +tremblingly and hesitatingly. One woman wept loudly shouting between the +paroxysms of sobbing that seized her, "The weight of my sins is heavy on +my soul." Girls and young men when called on by the minister responded +with shamed, hesitating voices asking that a verse of some hymn be sung, +or quoting a line of scripture. + +At the back of the church the evangelist with one of the deacons and two +or three women had gathered about a small, black-haired woman, the wife +of a baker to whom Sam delivered papers. They were urging her to rise +and get within the fold, and Sam turned and watched her curiously, his +sympathy going out to her. With all his heart he hoped that she would +continue doggedly shaking her head. + +Suddenly the irrepressible Jim Williams broke forth again. A quiver +ran over Sam's body and the blood rose to his cheeks. "Here is another +sinner saved," shouted Jim, pointing to the standing boy. "Count this +boy, Sam McPherson, in the fold among the lambs." + +On the platform the brown-bearded minister stood upon a chair and looked +over the heads of the people. An ingratiating smile played about his +lips. "Let us hear from the young man, Sam McPherson," he said, raising +his hand for silence, and, then, encouragingly, "Sam, what have you to +say for the Lord?" + +Become the centre for the attention of the people in the church Sam +was terror-stricken. The rage against Jim Williams was forgotten in the +spasm of fear that seized him. He looked over his shoulder to the door +at the back of the church and thought longingly of the quiet street +outside. He hesitated, stammered, grew more red and uncertain, +and finally burst out: "The Lord," he said, and then looked about +hopelessly, "the Lord maketh me to lie out in green pastures." + +In the seats behind him a titter arose. A young woman sitting among the +singers in the choir put her handkerchief to her face and throwing back +her head rocked back and forth. A man near the door guffawed loudly and +went hurriedly out. All over the church people began laughing. + +Sam turned his eyes upon his mother. She was staring straight ahead of +her, and her face was red. "I'm going out of this place and I'm never +coming back again," he whispered, and, stepping into the aisle, walked +boldly toward the door. He had made up his mind that if the evangelist +tried to stop him he would fight. At his back he felt the rows of people +looking at him and smiling. The laughter continued. + +In the street he hurried along consumed with indignation. "I'll never +go into any church again," he swore, shaking his fist in the air. +The public avowals he had heard in the church seemed to him cheap and +unworthy. He wondered why his mother stayed in there. With a sweep of +his arm he dismissed all the people in the church. "It is a place to +make public asses of the people," he thought. + +Sam McPherson wandered through Main Street, dreading to meet Valmore and +John Telfer. Finding the chairs back of the stove in Wildman's grocery +deserted, he hurried past the grocer and hid in a corner. Tears of wrath +stood in his eyes. He had been made a fool of. He imagined the scene +that would go on when he came upon the street with the papers the next +morning. Freedom Smith would be there sitting in the old worn buggy and +roaring so that all the street would listen and laugh. "Going to lie out +in any green pastures to-night, Sam?" he would shout. "Ain't you afraid +you'll take cold?" By Geiger's drug store would stand Valmore and +Telfer, eager to join in the fun at his expense. Telfer would pound on +the side of the building with his cane and roar with laughter. Valmore +would make a trumpet of his hands and shout after the fleeing boy. "Do +you sleep out alone in them green pastures?" Freedom Smith would roar +again. + +Sam got up and went out of the grocery. As he hurried along, blind with +wrath, he felt he would like a stand-up fight with some one. And, then, +hurrying and avoiding the people, he merged with the crowd on the street +and became a witness to the strange thing that happened that night in +Caxton. + + * * * * * + +In Main Street hushed people stood about in groups talking. The air +was heavy with excitement. Solitary figures went from group to group +whispering hoarsely. Mike McCarthy, the man who had denied God and +who had won a place for himself in the affection of the newsboy, had +assaulted a man with a pocket knife and had left him bleeding and +wounded beside a country road. Something big and sensational had +happened in the life of the town. + +Mike McCarthy and Sam were friends. For years the man had idled upon the +streets of the town, loitering about, boasting and talking. He had sat +for hours in a chair under a tree before the New Leland House, reading +books, doing tricks with cards, engaging in long discussions with John +Telfer or any who would stand up to him. + +Mike McCarthy got into trouble in a fight over a woman. A young farmer +living at the edge of Caxton had come home from the fields to find his +wife in the bold Irishman's arms and the two men had gone out of the +house together to fight in the road. The woman, weeping in the house, +followed to ask forgiveness of her husband. Running in the gathering +darkness along the road she had found him cut and bleeding terribly, +lying in a ditch under a hedge. On down the road she ran and appeared at +the door of a neighbour, screaming and calling for help. + +The story of the fight in the road got to Caxton just as Sam came out of +the corner, back of the stove in Wildman's and appeared on the street. +Men ran from store to store and from group to group along the street +saying that the young farmer had died and that murder had been done. On +a street corner Windy McPherson harangued the crowd declaring that the +men of Caxton should arise in the defence of their homes and string the +murderer to a lamp post. Hop Higgins, driving a horse from Culvert's +livery, appeared on Main Street. "He will be at the McCarthy farm," he +shouted. When several men, coming out of Geiger's drug store, stopped +the marshal's horse, saying, "You will have trouble out there; you had +better take help," the little red-faced marshal with the crippled leg +laughed. "What trouble?" he asked--"To get Mike McCarthy? I shall ask +him to come and he will come. The rest of that lot won't cut any figure. +Mike can wrap the entire McCarthy family around his finger." + +There were six of the McCarthy men, all, except Mike, silent, sullen +men who only talked when they were in liquor. Mike furnished the town's +social touch with the family. It was a strange family to live there +in that fat, corn-growing country, a family with something savage and +primitive about it, one that belonged among western mining camps or +among the half savage dwellers in deep alleys in cities, and the fact +that it lived on a corn farm in Iowa was, in the words of John Telfer, +"something monstrous in Nature." + +The McCarthy farm, lying some four miles east of Caxton, had once +contained a thousand acres of good corn-growing land. Lem McCarthy, the +father of the family, had inherited it from a brother, a gold miner, +a forty-niner, a sport owning fast horses, who planned to breed race +horses on the Iowa land. Lem had come out of the back streets of an +eastern city, bringing his brood of tall, silent, savage boys to live +upon the land and, like the forty-niner, to be a sport. Thinking the +wealth that had come to him vast beyond spending, he had plunged into +horse racing and gambling. When, within two years, five hundred acres +of the farm had to be sold to pay gambling debts, and the wide acres lay +covered with weeds, Lem became alarmed, and settled down to hard work, +the boys working all day in the field and at long intervals coming +into town at night to get into trouble. Having no mother or sister, and +knowing that no Caxton woman could be hired to go upon the place, they +did their own housework; and on rainy days sat about the old farmhouse +playing cards and fighting. On other days they would stand around the +bar in Art Sherman's saloon in Piety Hollow drinking until they had lost +their savage silence and had become loud and quarrelsome, going from +there upon the streets to seek trouble. Once, going into Hayner's +restaurant, they took stacks of plates from shelves back of the counter +and, standing in the doorway, threw them at people passing in the +street, the crash of the breaking crockery accompanying their roaring +laughter. When they had driven the people to cover they got upon their +horses and with wild shouts raced up and down Main Street between the +rows of tied horses until Hop Higgins, the town marshal, appeared, when +they rode off into the country awakening the farmers along the darkened +road as they fled, shouting and singing, toward home. + +When the McCarthy boys got into trouble in Caxton, old Lem McCarthy +drove into town and got them out of it, paying for the damage done and +going about declaring the boys meant no harm. When told to keep them out +of town he shook his head and said he would try. + +Mike McCarthy did not ride swearing and singing with the five brothers +along the dark road. He did not work all day in the hot corn fields. He +was the family gentleman, and, wearing good clothes, strolled instead +upon the street or loitered in the shade before the New Leland House. +Mike had been educated. For some years he had attended a college in +Indiana from which he was expelled for an affair with a woman. After his +return from college he stayed in Caxton, living at the hotel and making +a pretence of studying law in the office of old Judge Reynolds. He paid +slight attention to the study of law, but with infinite patience had so +trained his hands that he became wonderfully dexterous with coins and +cards, plucking them out of the air and making them appear in the shoes, +the hats, and even in the mouths, of bystanders. During the day he +walked the streets looking at the girl clerks in the stores, or stood +upon the station platform waving his hand to women passengers on passing +trains. He told John Telfer that the flattery of women was a lost art +that he intended to restore. Mike McCarthy carried in his pockets books +which he read sitting in a chair before the hotel or on the stones +before store windows. When on Saturdays the streets were filled with +people, he stood on the corners giving gratuitous performances of his +magical art with cards and coins, and eyeing country girls in the crowd. +Once, a woman, the town stationer's wife, shouted at him, calling him +a lazy lout, whereupon he threw a coin in the air, and when it did not +come down rushed toward her shouting, "She has it in her stocking." When +the stationer's wife ran into her shop and banged the door the crowd +laughed and shouted with delight. + +Telfer had a liking for the tall, grey-eyed, loitering McCarthy +and sometimes sat with him discussing a novel or a poem; Sam in the +background listened eagerly. Valmore did not care for the man, shaking +his head and declaring that such a fellow could come to no good end. + +The rest of the town agreed with Valmore, and McCarthy, knowing this, +sunned himself in the town's displeasure. For the sake of the public +furor it brought down upon his head he proclaimed himself a socialist, +an anarchist, an atheist, a pagan. Among all the McCarthy boys he alone +cared greatly about women, and he made public and open declarations +of his passion for them. Before the men gathered about the stove in +Wildman's grocery store he would stand whipping them into a frenzy by +declaring for free love, and vowing that he would have the best of any +woman who gave him the chance. + +For this man the frugal, hard working newsboy had conceived a regard +amounting to a passion. As he listened to McCarthy he got continuous +delightful little thrills. "There is nothing he would not dare," thought +the boy. "He is the freest, the boldest, the bravest man in town." +When the young Irishman, seeing the admiration in his eyes, flung him +a silver dollar saying, "That is for your fine brown eyes, my boy; it +I had them I would have half the women in town after me," Sam kept the +dollar in his pocket and counted it a kind of treasure like the rose +given a lover by his sweetheart. + + * * * * * + +It was past eleven o'clock when Hop Higgins returned to town with +McCarthy, driving quietly along the street and through an alley at the +back of the town hall. The crowd upon the street had broken up. Sam had +gone from one to another of the muttering groups, his heart quaking with +fear. Now he stood at the back of the mass of men gathered at the jail +door. An oil lamp, burning at the top of the post above the door, threw +dancing, flickering lights on the faces of the men before him. The +thunder storm that had threatened had not come, but the unnatural warm +wind continued and the sky overhead was inky black. + +Through the alley, to the jail door, drove the town marshal, the young +McCarthy sitting in the buggy beside him. A man rushed forward to hold +the horse. McCarthy's face was chalky white. He laughed and shouted, +raising his hand toward the sky. + +"I am Michael, son of God. I have cut a man with a knife so that his +red blood ran upon the ground. I am the son of God and this filthy jail +shall be my sanctuary. In there I shall talk aloud with my Father," he +roared hoarsely, shaking his fist at the crowd. "Sons of this cesspool +of respectability, stay and hear! Send for your females and let them +stand in the presence of a man!" + +Taking the white, wild-eyed man by the arm Marshal Higgins led him into +the jail, the clank of locks, the low murmur of the voice of Higgins and +the wild laughter of McCarthy floating out to the group of silent men +standing in the mud of the alley. + +Sam McPherson ran past the group of men to the side of the jail and +finding John Telfer and Valmore leaning silently against the wall of +Tom Folger's wagon shop slipped between them. Telfer put out his arm and +laid it upon the boy's shoulder. Hop Higgins, coming out of the jail, +addressed the crowd. "Don't answer if he talks," he said; "he is as +crazy as a loon." + +Sam moved closer to Telfer. The voice of the imprisoned man, loud, +and filled with a startling boldness, rolled out of the jail. He began +praying. + +"Hear me, Father Almighty, who has permitted this town of Caxton to +exist and has let me, Thy son, grow to manhood. I am Michael, Thy son. +They have put me in this jail where rats run across the floor and +they stand in the mud outside as I talk with Thee. Are you there, old +Truepenny?" + +A breath of cold air blew up the alley followed by a flaw of rain. The +group under the flickering lamp by the jail entrance drew back against +the walls of the building. Sam could see them dimly, pressing closely +against the wall. The man in the jail laughed loudly. + +"I have had a philosophy of life, O Father," he shouted. "I have seen +men and women here living year after year without children. I have seen +them hoarding pennies and denying Thee new life on which to work Thy +will. To these women I have gone secretly talking of carnal love. With +them I have been gentle and kind; them I have flattered." + +A roaring laugh broke from the lips of the imprisoned man. "Are you +there, oh dwellers in the cesspool of respectability?" he shouted. "Do +you stand in the mud with cold feet listening? I have been with your +wives. Eleven Caxton wives without babes have I been with and it has +been fruitless. The twelfth woman I have just left, leaving her man in +the road a bleeding sacrifice to thee. I shall call out the names of the +eleven. I shall have revenge also upon the husbands of the women, some +of whom wait with the others in the mud outside." + +He began calling off the names of Caxton wives. A shudder ran through +the body of the boy, sensitised by the new chill in the air and by the +excitement of the night. Among the men standing along the wall of the +jail a murmur arose. Again they grouped themselves under the flickering +light by the jail door, disregarding the rain. Valmore, stumbling out of +the darkness beside Sam, stood before Telfer. "The boy should be going +home," he said; "this isn't fit for him to hear." + +Telfer laughed and drew Sam closer to him. "He has heard enough lies in +this town," he said. "Truth won't hurt him. I would not go myself, nor +would you, and the boy shall not go. This McCarthy has a brain. Although +he is half insane now he is trying to work something out. The boy and I +will stay to hear." + +The voice from the jail continued calling out the names of Caxton wives. +Voices in the group before the jail door began shouting: "This should be +stopped. Let us tear down the jail." + +McCarthy laughed aloud. "They squirm, oh Father, they squirm; I have +them in the pit and I torture them," he cried. + +An ugly feeling of satisfaction came over Sam. He had a sense of the +fact that the names shouted from the jail would be repeated over and +over through the town. One of the women whose names had been called out +had stood with the evangelist at the back of the church trying to induce +the wife of the baker to rise and be counted in the fold with the lambs. + +The rain, falling on the shoulders of the men by the jail door, changed +to hail, the air grew colder and the hailstones rattled on the roofs of +buildings. Some of the men joined Telfer and Valmore, talking in low, +excited voices. "And Mary McKane, too, the hypocrite," Sam heard one of +them say. + +The voice inside the jail changed. Still praying, Mike McCarthy seemed +also to be talking to the group in the darkness outside. + +"I am sick of my life. I have sought leadership and have not found +it. Oh Father! Send down to men a new Christ, one to get hold of us, a +modern Christ with a pipe in his mouth who will swear and knock us about +so that we vermin who pretend to be made in Thy image will understand. +Let him go into churches and into courthouses, into cities, and into +towns like this, shouting, 'Be ashamed! Be ashamed of your cowardly +concern over your snivelling souls!' Let him tell us that never will our +lives, so miserably lived, be repeated after our bodies lie rotting in +the grave." + +A sob broke from his lips and a lump came into Sam's throat. + +"Oh Father! help us men of Caxton to understand that we have only this, +our lives, this life so warm and hopeful and laughing in the sun, this +life with its awkward boys full of strange possibilities, and its girls +with their long legs and freckles on their noses, that are meant to +carry life within themselves, new life, kicking and stirring, and waking +them at night." + +The voice of the prayer broke. Wild sobs took the place of speech. +"Father!" shouted the broken voice, "I have taken a life, a man that +moved and talked and whistled in the sunshine on winter mornings; I have +killed." + + * * * * * + +The voice inside the jail became inaudible. Silence, broken by low sobs +from the jail, fell on the little dark alley and the listening men began +going silently away. The lump in Sam's throat grew larger. Tears stood +in his eyes. He went with Telfer and Valmore out of the alley and into +the street, the two men walking in silence. The rain had ceased and a +cold wind blew. + +The boy felt that he had been shriven. His mind, his heart, even his +tired body seemed strangely cleansed. He felt a new affection for Telfer +and Valmore. When Telfer began talking he listened eagerly, thinking +that at last he understood him and knew why men like Valmore, Wildman, +Freedom Smith, and Telfer loved each other and went on being friends +year after year in the face of difficulties and misunderstandings. He +thought that he had got hold of the idea of brotherhood that John Telfer +talked of so often and so eloquently. "Mike McCarthy is only a brother +who has gone the dark road," he thought and felt a glow of pride in the +thought and in the apt expression of it in his mind. + +John Telfer, forgetting the boy, talked soberly to Valmore, the two men +stumbling along in the darkness intent upon their own thoughts. + +"It is an odd thought," said Telfer and his voice seemed far away and +unnatural like the voice from the jail; "it is an odd thought that but +for a quirk in the brain this Mike McCarthy might himself have been a +kind of Christ with a pipe in his mouth." + +Valmore stumbled and half fell in the darkness at a street crossing. +Telfer went on talking. + +"The world will some day grope its way into some kind of an +understanding of its extraordinary men. Now they suffer terribly. In +success or in such failures as has come to this imaginative, strangely +perverted Irishman their lot is pitiful. It is only the common, the +plain, unthinking man who slides peacefully through this troubled +world." + +At the house Jane McPherson sat waiting for her boy. She was thinking of +the scene in the church and a hard light was in her eyes. Sam went +past the sleeping room of his parents, where Windy McPherson snored +peacefully, and up the stairway to his own room. He undressed and, +putting out the light, knelt upon the floor. From the wild ravings of +the man in the jail he had got hold of something. In the midst of the +blasphemy of Mike McCarthy he had sensed a deep and abiding love of +life. Where the church had failed the bold sensualist succeeded. Sam +felt that he could have prayed in the presence of the entire town. + +"Oh, Father!" he cried, sending up his voice in the silence of the +little room, "make me stick to the thought that the right living of +this, my life, is my duty to you." + +By the door below, while Valmore waited on the sidewalk, Telfer talked +to Jane McPherson. + +"I wanted Sam to hear," he explained. "He needs a religion. All young +men need a religion. I wanted him to hear how even a man like Mike +McCarthy keeps instinctively trying to justify himself before God." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +John Telfer's friendship was a formative influence upon Sam McPherson. +His father's worthlessness and the growing realisation of the hardship +of his mother's position had given life a bitter taste in his mouth, +and Telfer sweetened it. He entered with zeal into Sam's thoughts +and dreams, and tried valiantly to arouse in the quiet, industrious, +money-making boy some of his own love of life and beauty. At night, as +the two walked down country roads, the man would stop and, waving his +arms about, quote Poe or Browning or, in another mood, would compel +Sam's attention to the rare smell of a hayfield or to a moonlit stretch +of meadow. + +Before people gathered on the streets he teased the boy, calling him a +little money grubber and saying, "He is like a little mole that +works underground. As the mole goes for a worm so this boy goes for a +five-cent piece. I have watched him. A travelling man goes out of town +leaving a stray dime or nickel here and within an hour it is in this +boy's pocket. I have talked to banker Walker of him. He trembles lest +his vaults become too small to hold the wealth of this young Croesus. +The day will come when he will buy the town and put it into his vest +pocket." + +For all his public teasing of the boy Telfer had the genius to adopt a +different attitude when they were alone together. Then he talked to him +openly and freely as he talked to Valmore and Freedom Smith and to other +cronies of his on the streets of Caxton. Walking along the road he would +point with his cane to the town and say, "You and that mother of yours +have more of the real stuff in you than the rest of the boys and mothers +of the town put together." + +In all Caxton Telfer was the only man who knew books and who took them +seriously. Sam sometimes found his attitude toward them puzzling and +would stand with open mouth listening as Telfer swore or laughed at a +book as he did at Valmore or Freedom Smith. He had a fine portrait +of Browning which he kept hung in the stable and before this he would +stand, his legs spread apart, and his head tilted to one side, talking. + +"A rich old sport you are, eh?" he would say, grinning. "Getting +yourself discussed by women and college professors in clubs, eh? You old +fraud!" + +Toward Mary Underwood, the school teacher who had become Sam's friend +and with whom the boy sometimes walked and talked, Telfer had no +charity. Mary Underwood was a sort of cinder in the eyes of Caxton. She +was the only child of Silas Underwood, the town harness maker, who once +had worked in a shop belonging to Windy McPherson. After the business +failure of Windy he had started independently and for a time did +well, sending his daughter to a school in Massachusetts. Mary did +not understand the people of Caxton and the people misunderstood and +distrusted her. Taking no part in the life of the town and keeping to +herself and to her books she awoke a kind of fear in others. Because she +did not join them at church suppers, or go from porch to porch gossiping +with other women through the long summer evenings, they thought her +something abnormal. On Sundays she sat alone in her pew at church and +on Saturday afternoons, come storm, come sunshine, she walked on country +roads and through the woods accompanied by a collie dog. She was a small +woman with a straight, slender figure and had fine blue eyes filled with +changing lights, hidden by the eye-glasses she almost constantly wore. +Her lips were very full and red, and she sat with them parted so that +the edges of her fine teeth showed. Her nose was large, and a fine +reddish-brown colour glowed in her cheeks. Though different, she had, +like Jane McPherson, a habit of silence; and under her silence, she, +like Sam's mother, possessed an unusually strong and vigorous mind. + +As a child she was a sort of half invalid and had not been on friendly +footing with other children. It was then that her habit of silence and +reticence had been established. The years in the school in Massachusetts +restored her health but did not break this habit. She came home and took +the place in the schools to earn money with which to take her back East, +dreaming of a position as instructor in an eastern college. She was that +rare thing, a woman scholar, loving scholarship for its own sake. + +Mary Underwood's position in the town and in the schools was insecure. +Out of her silent, independent way of life had sprung a misunderstanding +that, at least once, had taken definite form and had come near driving +her from the town and schools. That she did not succumb to the storm of +criticism that for some weeks beat about her head was due to her habit +of silence and to a determination to get her own way in the face of +everything. + +It was a suggestion of scandal that had put the grey hairs upon her +head. The scandal had blown over before the time of her friendship for +Sam, but he had known of it. In those days he knew of everything that +went on in the town--his quick ears and eyes missed nothing. More than +once he had heard the men waiting to be shaved in Sawyer's barber shop +speak of her. + +The tale ran that she had been involved in an affair with a real estate +agent who had afterward left town. It was said that the man, a tall, +fine-looking fellow, had been in love with Mary and had wanted to desert +his wife and go away with her. One night he had driven to Mary's house +in a closed buggy and the two had driven into the country. They had sat +for hours in the covered buggy at the side of the road and talked, and +people driving past had seen them there talking together. + +And then she had got out of the buggy and walked home alone through snow +drifts. The next day she was at school as usual. When told of it the +school superintendent, a puttering old fellow with vacant eyes, had +shaken his head in alarm and declared that it must be looked into. He +called Mary into his little narrow office in the school building, but +lost courage when she sat before him, and said nothing. The man in the +barber shop, who repeated the tale, said that the real estate man drove +on to a distant station and took a train to the city, and that some days +later he came back to Caxton and moved his family out of town. + +Sam dismissed the story from his mind. Having begun a friendship for +Mary he put the man in the barber shop into a class with Windy McPherson +and thought of him as a pretender and liar who talked for the sake of +talk. He remembered with a shock the crude levity with which the loafers +in the shop had greeted the repetition of the tale. Their comments +had come back to his mind as he walked through the streets with his +newspapers and had given him a kind of jolt. He went along under the +trees thinking of the sunlight falling upon the grey hair as they walked +together on summer afternoons, and bit his lip and opened and closed his +fist convulsively. + +During Mary's second year in the Caxton schools her mother died, and at +the end of another year, her father, failing in the harness business, +Mary became a fixture in the schools. The house at the edge of the town, +the property of her mother, had come down to her and she lived there +with an old aunt. After the passing of the wind of scandal concerning +the real estate man the town lost interest in her. She was thirty-six +at the time of her first friendship with Sam and lived alone among her +books. + +Sam had been deeply moved by her friendship. It had seemed to him +something significant that grown people with affairs of their own should +be so in earnest about his future as she and Telfer were. Boylike, he +counted it a tribute to himself rather than to the winsome youth in him, +and was made proud by it. Having no real feeling for books, and only +pretending to have out of a desire to please, he sometimes went from one +to the other of his two friends, passing off their opinions as his own. + +At this trick Telfer invariably caught him. "That is not your notion," +he would shout, "you have it from that school teacher. It is the opinion +of a woman. Their opinions, like the books they sometimes write, are +founded on nothing. They are not the real things. Women know nothing. +Men only care for them because they have not had what they want from +them. No woman is really big--except maybe my woman, Eleanor." + +When Sam continued to be much in the company of Mary, Telfer grew more +bitter. + +"I would have you observe women's minds and avoid letting them influence +your own," he told the boy. "They live in a world of unrealities. They +like even vulgar people in books, but shrink from the simple, earthy +folk about them. That school teacher is so. Is she like me? Does she, +while loving books, love also the very smell of human life?" + +In a way Telfer's attitude toward the kindly little school teacher +became Sam's attitude. Although they walked and talked together the +course of study she had planned for him he never took up and as he +grew to know her better, the books she read and the ideas she advanced +appealed to him less and less. He thought that she, as Telfer held, +lived in a world of illusion and unreality and said so. When she lent +him books, he put them in his pocket and did not read them. When he did +read, he thought the books reminded him of something that hurt him. They +were in some way false and pretentious. He thought they were like +his father. One day he tried reading aloud to Telfer from a book Mary +Underwood had lent him. + +The story was one of a poetic man with long, unclean fingernails who +went among people preaching the doctrine of beauty. It began with a +scene on a hillside in a rainstorm where the poetic man sat under a tent +writing a letter to his sweetheart. + +Telfer was beside himself. Jumping from his seat under a tree by the +roadside he waved his arms and shouted: + +"Stop! Stop it! Do not go on with it. The story lies. A man could not +write love letters under the circumstances and he was a fool to pitch +his tent on a hillside. A man in a tent on a hillside in a storm would +be cold and wet and getting the rheumatism. To be writing letters he +would need to be an unspeakable ass. He had better be out digging a +trench to keep the water from running through his tent." + +Waving his arms, Telfer went off up the road and Sam followed thinking +him altogether right, and, if later in life he learned that there are +men who could write love letters on a piece of housetop in a flood, he +did not know it then and the least suggestion of windiness or pretence +lay heavy in his stomach. + +Telfer had a vast enthusiasm for Bellamy's "Looking Backward," and read +it aloud to his wife on Sunday afternoons, sitting under the apple trees +in the garden. They had a fund of little personal jokes and sayings that +they were forever laughing over, and she had infinite delight in his +comments on the life and people of Caxton, but did not share his love of +books. When she sometimes went to sleep in her chair during the Sunday +afternoon readings he poked her with his cane and laughingly told her +to wake up and listen to the dream of a great dreamer. Among Browning's +verses his favourites were "A Light Woman" and "Fra Lippo Lippi," and +he would recite these aloud with great gusto. He declared Mark Twain the +greatest man in the world and in certain moods he would walk the road +beside Sam reciting over and over one or two lines of verse, often this +from Poe: + + Helen, thy beauty is to me + Like some Nicean bark of yore. + +Then, stopping and turning upon the boy, he would demand whether or not +the writing of such lines wasn't worth living a life for. + +Telfer had a pack of dogs that always went with them on their walks +at night and he had for them long Latin names that Sam could never +remember. One summer be bought a trotting mare from Lem McCarthy and +gave great attention to the colt, which he named Bellamy Boy, trotting +him up and down a little driveway by the side of his house for hours at +a time and declaring he would be a great trotting horse. He could recite +the colt's pedigree with great gusto and when he had been talking to Sam +of some book he would repay the boy's attention by saying, "You, my boy, +are as far superior to the run of boys about town as the colt, Bellamy +Boy, is superior to the farm horses that are hitched along Main Street +on Saturday afternoons." And then, with a wave of his hand and a look +of much seriousness on his face, he would add, "And for the same reason. +You have been, like him, under a master trainer of youth." + + * * * * * + +One evening Sam, now grown to man's stature and full of the awkwardness +and self-consciousness of his new growth, was sitting on a cracker +barrel at the back of Wildman's grocery. It was a summer evening and a +breeze blew through the open doors swaying the hanging oil lamps that +burned and sputtered overhead. As usual he was listening in silence to +the talk that went on among the men. + +Standing with legs wide apart and from time to time jabbing with his +cane at Sam's legs, John Telfer held forth on the subject of love. + +"It is a theme that poets do well to write of," he declared. "In +writing of it they avoid the necessity of embracing it. In trying for a +well-turned line they forget to look at well-turned ankles. He who +sings most passionately of love has been in love the least; he woos the +goddess of poesy and only gets into trouble when he, like John Keats, +turns to the daughter of a villager and tries to live the lines he has +written." + +"Stuff and nonsense," roared Freedom Smith, who had been sitting tilted +far back in a chair with his feet against the cold stove, smoking a +short, black pipe, and who now brought his feet down upon the floor with +a bang. Admiring Telfer's flow of words he pretended to be filled with +scorn. "The night is too hot for eloquence," he bellowed. "If you must +be eloquent talk of ice cream or mint juleps or recite a verse about the +old swimming pool." + +Telfer, wetting his finger, thrust it into the air. + +"The wind is in the north-west; the beasts roar; we will have a storm," +he said, winking at Valmore. + +Banker Walker came into the store, followed by his daughter. She was a +small, dark-skinned girl with black, quick eyes. Seeing Sam sitting with +swinging legs upon the cracker barrel she spoke to her father and went +out of the store. At the sidewalk she stopped and, turning, made a quick +motion with her hand. + +Sam jumped off the cracker barrel and strolled toward the street door. +A flush was on his cheeks. His mouth felt hot and dry. He went with +extreme deliberateness, stopping to bow to the banker, and for a moment +lingering to read a newspaper that lay upon the cigar case, to avoid the +comments he feared his going might excite among the men by the stove. +In his heart he trembled lest the girl should have disappeared down the +street, and with his eyes, he looked guiltily at the banker, who had +joined the group at the back of the store and who now stood listening +to the talk, while he read from a list held in his hand and Wildman +went here and there doing up packages and repeating aloud the names of +articles called off by the banker. + +At the end of the lighted business section of Main Street, Sam found the +girl waiting for him. She began to tell of the subterfuge by which she +had escaped her father. + +"I told him I would go home with my sister," she said, tossing her head. + +Taking hold of the boy's hand, she led him along the shaded street. For +the first time Sam walked in the company of one of the strange beings +that had begun to bring him uneasy nights, and overcome with the wonder +of it the blood climbed through his body and made his head reel so that +he walked in silence unable to understand his own emotions. He felt the +soft hand of the girl with delight; his heart pounded against the walls +of his chest and a choking sensation gripped at his throat. + +Walking along the street, past lighted residences where the low voices +of women in talk greeted his ears, Sam was inordinately proud. He +thought that he should like to turn and walk with this girl through the +lighted Main Street. Had she not chosen him from among all the boys of +the town; had she not, with a flutter of her little, white hand, called +to him with a call that he wondered the men upon the cracker barrels had +not heard? Her boldness and his own took his breath away. He could not +talk. His tongue seemed paralysed. + +Down the street went the boy and girl, loitering in the shadows, +hurrying past the dim oil lamps at street crossings, getting from each +other wave after wave of exquisite little thrills. Neither spoke. They +were beyond words. Had they not together done this daring thing? + +In the shadow of a tree they stopped and stood facing each other; the +girl looked at the ground and stood facing the boy. Putting out his hand +he laid it upon her shoulder. In the darkness on the other side of the +street a man stumbled homeward along a board sidewalk. The lights of +Main Street glowed in the distance. Sam drew the girl toward him. She +raised her head. Their lips met, and then, throwing her arms about his +neck, she kissed him again and again eagerly. + + * * * * * + +Sam's return to Wildman's was marked by extreme caution. Although he had +been absent but fifteen minutes it seemed to him that hours must have +passed and he would not have been surprised to see the stores locked +and darkness settled down on Main Street. It was inconceivable that the +grocer could still be wrapping packages for banker Walker. Worlds had +been remade. Manhood had come to him. Why! the man should have wrapped +the entire store, package after package, and sent it to the ends of the +earth. He lingered in the shadows at the first of the store lights +where ages before he had gone, a mere boy, to meet her, a mere girl, and +looked with wonder at the lighted way before him. + +Sam crossed the street and, from the front of Sawyer's barber shop, +looked into Wildman's. He felt like a spy looking into the camp of an +enemy. There before him sat the men into whose midst he had it in +his power to cast a thunderbolt. He might walk to the door and say, +truthfully enough, "Here before you is a boy that by the flutter of a +white hand has been made into a man; here is one who has wrung the heart +of womankind and eaten his fill at the tree of the knowledge of life." + +In the grocery the talk still continued among the men upon the cracker +barrels who seemed unconscious of the boy's slinking entrance. Indeed, +their talk had sunk. From talking of love and of poets they talked of +corn and of steers. Banker Walker, his packages of groceries lying on +the counter, smoked a cigar. + +"You can fairly hear the corn growing to-night," he said. "It wants but +another shower or two and we shall have a record crop. I plan to feed a +hundred steers at my farm out Rabbit Road this winter." + +The boy climbed again upon a cracker barrel and tried to look +unconcerned and interested in the talk. Still his heart thumped; still +a throbbing went on in his wrists. He turned and looked at the floor +hoping his agitation would pass unnoticed. + +The banker, taking up the packages, walked out at the door. Valmore and +Freedom Smith went over to the livery barn for a game of pinochle. +And John Telfer, twirling his cane and calling to a troup of dogs that +loitered in an alley back of the store, took Sam for a walk into the +country. + +"I will continue this talk of love," said Telfer, striking at weeds +along the road with his cane and from time to time calling sharply to +the dogs that, filled with delight at being abroad, ran growling and +tumbling over each other in the dusty road. + +"That Freedom Smith is a sample of life in this town. At the word love +he drops his feet upon the floor and pretends to be filled with disgust. +He will talk of corn or steers or of the stinking hides that he buys, +but at the mention of the word love he is like a hen that has seen a +hawk in the sky. He runs about in circles making a fuss. 'Here! Here! +Here!' he cries, 'you are making public something that should be kept +hidden. You are doing in the light of day what should only be done with +a shamed face in a darkened room.' Why, boy, if I were a woman in +this town I would not stand it--I would go to New York, to France, +to Paris--To be wooed for but a passing moment by a shame-faced yokel +without art--uh--it is unthinkable." + +The man and the boy walked in silence. The dogs, scenting a rabbit, +disappeared across a long pasture, their master letting them go. From +time to time he threw back his head and took long breaths of the night +air. + +"I am not like banker Walker," he declared. "He thinks of the growing +corn in terms of fat steers feeding on the Rabbit Run farm; I think of +it as something majestic. I see the long corn rows with the men and the +horses half hidden, hot and breathless, and I think of a vast river of +life. I catch a breath of the flame that was in the mind of the man who +said, 'The land is flowing with milk and honey.' I am made happy by my +thoughts not by the dollars clinking in my pocket. + +"And then in the fall when the corn stands shocked I see another +picture. Here and there in companies stand the armies of the corn. +It puts a ring in my voice to look at them. 'These orderly armies has +mankind brought out of chaos,' I say to myself. 'On a smoking black ball +flung by the hand of God out of illimitable space has man stood up these +armies to defend his home against the grim attacking armies of want.'" + +Telfer stopped and stood in the road with his legs spread apart. He took +off his hat and throwing back his head laughed up at the stars. + +"Freedom Smith should hear me now," he cried, rocking back and forth +with laughter and switching his cane at the boy's legs so that Sam had +to hop merrily about in the road to avoid it. "Flung by the hand of God +out of illimitable space--eh! not bad, eh! I should be in Congress. I +am wasted here. I am throwing priceless eloquence to dogs who prefer to +chase rabbits and to a boy who is the worst little money grubber in the +town." + +The midsummer madness that had seized Telfer passed and for a time he +walked in silence. Suddenly, putting his arm on the boy's shoulder, he +stopped and pointed to where a faint light in the sky marked the lighted +town. + +"They are good people," he said, "but their ways are not my ways or your +ways. You will go out of the town. You have genius. You will be a man of +finance. I have watched you. You are not niggardly and you do not cheat +and lie--result--you will not be a little business man. What have you? +You have the gift of seeing dollars where the rest of the boys of the +town see nothing and you are tireless after those dollars--you will be +a big man of dollars, it is plain." Into his voice came a touch of +bitterness. "I also was marked out. Why do I carry a cane? why do I not +buy a farm and raise steers? I am the most worthless thing alive. I have +the touch of genius without the energy to make it count." + +Sam's mind that had been inflamed by the kiss of the girl cooled in the +presence of Telfer. In the summer madness of the talking man there was +something soothing to the fever in his blood. He followed the words +eagerly, seeing pictures, getting thrills, filled with happiness. + +At the edge of town a buggy passed the walking pair. In the buggy sat +a young farmer, his arm about the waist of a girl, her head upon his +shoulder. Far in the distance sounded the faint call of the dogs. Sam +and Telfer sat down on a grassy bank under a tree while Telfer rolled +and lighted a cigarette. + +"As I promised, I will talk to you of love," he said, making a wide +sweep with his arm each time as he put his cigarette into his mouth. + +The grassy bank on which they lay had the rich, burned smell of the hot +days. A wind rustled the standing corn that formed a kind of wall behind +them. The moon was in the sky and shone down across bank after bank of +serried clouds. The grandiloquence went out of the voice of Telfer and +his face became serious. + +"My foolishness is more than half earnest," he said. "I think that a +man or boy who has set for himself a task had better let women and girls +alone. If he be a man of genius, he has a purpose independent of all +the world, and should cut and slash and pound his way toward his mark, +forgetting every one, particularly the woman that would come to grips +with him. She also has a mark toward which she goes. She is at war with +him and has a purpose that is not his purpose. She believes that the +pursuit of women is an end for a life. For all they now condemn Mike +McCarthy who went to the asylum because of them and who, while loving +life, came near to taking life, the women of Caxton do not condemn his +madness for themselves; they do not blame him for loitering away his +good years or for making an abortive mess of his good brain. While he +made an art of the pursuit of women they applauded secretly. Did +not twelve of them accept the challenge thrown out by his eyes as he +loitered in the streets?" + +The man, who had begun talking quietly and seriously, raised his voice +and waved the lighted cigarette in the air and the boy who had begun +to think again of the dark-skinned daughter of banker Walker listened +attentively. The barking of the dogs grew nearer. + +"If you as a boy can get from me, a grown man, an understanding of the +purpose of women you will not have lived in this town for nothing. Set +your mark at money making if you will, but drive at that. Let yourself +but go and a sweet wistful pair of eyes seen in a street crowd or a pair +of little feet running over a dance floor will retard your growth for +years. No man or boy can grow toward the purpose of a life while he +thinks of women. Let him try it and he will be undone. What is to him +a passing humour is to them an end. They are diabolically clever. They +will run and stop and run and stop again, keeping just without his +reach. He sees them here and there about him. His mind is filled with +vague, delicious thoughts that come out of the very air; before he +realises what he has done he has spent his years in vain pursuit and +turning finds himself old and undone." + +Telfer began jabbing at the ground with his stick. + +"I had my chance. In New York I had money to live on and time to have +made an artist of myself. I won prize after prize. The master, walking +up and down back of us, lingered longest over my easel. There was a +fellow sat beside me who had nothing. I made sport of him and called him +Sleepy Jock after a dog we used to have about our house here in Caxton. +Now I am here idly waiting for death and that Jock, where is he? Only +last week I saw in a paper that he had won a place among the world's +great artists by a picture he has painted. In the school I watched for +a look in the eyes of the girl students and went about with them night +after night winning, like Mike McCarthy, fruitless victories. Sleepy +Jock had the best of it. He did not look about with open eyes but kept +peering instead at the face of the master. My days were full of small +successes. I could wear clothes. I could make soft-eyed girls turn to +look at me in a dance hall. I remember a night. We students gave a dance +and Sleepy Jock came. He went about asking for dances and the girls +laughed and told him they had none to give, that the dances were taken. +I followed him and had my ears filled with flattery and my card with +names. In riding the wave of small success I got the habit of small +success. When I could not catch the line I wanted to make a drawing +live, I dropped my pencil and, taking a girl upon my arm, went for a +day in the country. Once, sitting in a restaurant, I overheard two women +talking of the beauty of my eyes and was made happy for a week." + +Telfer threw up his hands in disgust. + +"My flow of words, my ready trick of talking; to what does it bring me? +Let me tell you. It has brought me to this--that at fifty I, who might +have been an artist fixing the minds of thousands upon some thing of +beauty or of truth, have become a village cut-up, a pot-house wit, a +flinger of idle words into the air of a village intent upon raising +corn. + +"If you ask me why, I tell you that my mind was paralysed by small +success and if you ask me where I got the taste for that, I tell you +that I got it when I saw it lurking in a woman's eyes and heard the +pleasant little songs that lull to sleep upon a woman's lips." + +The boy, sitting upon the grassy bank beside Telfer, began thinking of +life in Caxton. The man smoking the cigarette fell into one of his rare +silences. The boy thought of girls that had come into his mind at +night, of how he had been thrilled by a glance from the eyes of a little +blue-eyed school girl who had once visited at Freedom Smith's home and +of how he had gone at night to stand under her window. + +In Caxton adolescent love had about it a virility befitting a land +that raised so many bushels of yellow corn and drove so many fat steers +through the streets to be loaded upon cars. Men and women went their +ways believing, with characteristic American what-boots-it attitude +toward the needs of childhood, that it was well for growing boys and +girls to be much alone together. To leave them alone together was a +principle with them. When a young man called upon his sweetheart, +her parents sat in the presence of the two with apologetic eyes and +presently disappeared leaving them alone together. When boys' and girls' +parties were given in Caxton houses, parents went away leaving the +children to shift for themselves. + +"Now have a good time and don't tear the house down," they said, going +off upstairs. + +Left to themselves the children played kissing games and young men +and tall half-formed girls sat on the front porches in the darkness, +thrilled and half frightened, getting through their instincts, crudely +and without guidance, their first peep at the mystery of life. They +kissed passionately and the young men, walking home, lay upon their beds +fevered and unnaturally aroused, thinking thoughts. + +Young men went into the company of girls time and again without knowing +aught of them except that they caused a stirring of their whole being, a +kind of riot of the senses to which they returned on other evenings as +a drunkard to his cups. After such an evening they found themselves, on +the next morning, confused and filled with vague longings. They had lost +their keenness for fun, they heard without hearing the talk of the men +about the station and in the stores, they went slinking through the +streets in groups and people seeing them nodded their heads and said, +"It is the loutish age." + +If Sam did not have a loutish age it was due to his tireless struggle to +increase the totals at the foot of the pages in the yellow bankbook, to +the growing ill health of his mother that had begun to frighten him, and +to the society of Valmore, Wildman, Freedom Smith, and the man who now +sat musing beside him. He began to think he would have nothing more to +do with the Walker girl. He remembered his sister's affair with a young +farmer and shuddered at the crude vulgarity of it. He looked over the +shoulder of the man sitting beside him absorbed in thought, and saw the +rolling fields stretched away in the moonlight and into his mind came +Telfer's speech. So vivid, so moving, seemed the picture of the +armies of standing corn which men had set up in the fields to protect +themselves against the march of pitiless Nature, and Sam, holding the +picture in his mind as he followed the sense of Telfer's talk, thought +that all society had resolved itself into a few sturdy souls who went +on and on regardless, and a hunger to make of himself such another arose +engulfing him. The desire within him seemed so compelling that he turned +and haltingly tried to express what was in his mind. + +"I will try," he stammered, "I will try to be a man. I will try to +not have anything to do with them--with women. I will work and make +money--and--and----" + +Speech left him. He rolled over and lying on his stomach looked at the +ground. + +"To Hell with women and girls," he burst forth as though throwing +something distasteful out of his throat. + +In the road a clamour arose. The dogs, giving up the pursuit of rabbits, +came barking and growling into sight and scampered up the grassy +bank, covering the man and the boy. Shaking off the reaction upon his +sensitive nature of the emotions of the boy Telfer arose. His _sang +froid_ had returned to him. Cutting right and left with his stick at the +dogs he cried joyfully, "We have had enough of eloquence from man, boy, +and dog. We will be on our way. We will get this boy Sam home and tucked +into bed." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Sam was a half-grown man of fifteen when the call of the city came to +him. For six years he had been upon the streets. He had seen the sun +come up hot and red over the corn fields, and had stumbled through the +streets in the bleak darkness of winter mornings, when the trains from +the north came into Caxton covered with ice, and the trainmen stood on +the deserted little platform whipping their arms and calling to Jerry +Donlin to hurry with his work that they might get back into the warm +stale air of the smoking car. + +In the six years the boy had grown more and more determined to become +a man of money. Fed by banker Walker, the silent mother, and in some +subtle way by the very air he breathed, the belief within him that +to make money and to have money would in some way make up for the old +half-forgotten humiliations in the life of the McPherson family and +would set it on a more secure foundation than the wobbly Windy had +provided, grew and influenced his thoughts and his acts. Tirelessly +he kept at his efforts to get ahead. In his bed at night he dreamed of +dollars. Jane McPherson had herself a passion for frugality. In spite +of Windy's incompetence and her own growing ill health, she would +not permit the family to go into debt, and although, in the long hard +winters, Sam sometimes ate cornmeal mush until his mind revolted at the +thought of a corn field, yet was the rent of the little house paid on +the scratch, and her boy fairly driven to increase the totals in the +yellow bankbook. Even Valmore, who since the death of his wife had lived +in a loft above his shop and who was a blacksmith of the old days, a +workman first and a money maker later, did not despise the thought of +gain. + +"It is money makes the mare go," he said with a kind of reverence as +banker Walker, fat, sleek, and prosperous, walked pompously out of +Wildman's grocery. + +Of John Telfer's attitude toward money-making, the boy was uncertain. +The man followed with joyous abandonment the impulse of the moment. + +"That's right," he cried impatiently when Sam, who had begun to express +opinions at the gatherings in the grocery, pointed out hesitatingly +that the papers took account of men of wealth no matter what their +achievements, "Make money! Cheat! Lie! Be one of the men of the big +world! Get your name up for a modern, high-class American!" + +And in the next breath, turning upon Freedom Smith who had begun to +berate the boy for not sticking to the schools and who predicted that +the day would come when Sam would regret his lack of book learning, +he shouted, "Let the schools go! They are but musty beds in which old +clerkliness lies asleep!" + +Among the travelling men who came to Caxton to sell goods, the boy, who +had continued the paper selling even after attaining the stature of a +man, was a favourite. Sitting in chairs before the New Leland House they +talked to him of the city and of the money to be made there. + +"It is the place for a live young man," they said. + +Sam had a talent for drawing people into talk of themselves and of their +affairs and began to cultivate travelling men. From them, he got into +his nostrils a whiff of the city and, listening to them, he saw the +great ways filled with hurrying people, the tall buildings touching +the sky, the men running about intent upon money-making, and the clerks +going on year after year on small salaries getting nowhere, a part of, +and yet not understanding, the impulses and motives of the enterprises +that supported them. + +In this picture Sam thought he saw a place for himself. He conceived of +life in the city as a great game in which he believed he could play a +sterling part. Had he not in Caxton brought something out of nothing, +had he not systematised and monopolised the selling of papers, had he +not introduced the vending of popcorn and peanuts from baskets to the +Saturday night crowds? Already boys went out in his employ, already the +totals in the bank book had crept to more than seven hundred dollars. He +felt within him a glow of pride at the thought of what he had done and +would do. + +"I will be richer than any man in town here," he declared in his pride. +"I will be richer than Ed Walker." + +Saturday night was the great night in Caxton life. For it the clerks +in the stores prepared, for it Sam sent forth his peanut and popcorn +venders, for it Art Sherman rolled up his sleeves and put the glasses +close by the beer tap under the bar, and for it the mechanics, the +farmers, and the labourers dressed in their Sunday best and came forth +to mingle with their fellows. On Main Street crowds packed the stores, +the sidewalks, and drinking places, and men stood about in groups +talking while young girls with their lovers walked up and down. In +the hall over Geiger's drug store a dance went on and the voice of the +caller-off rose above the clatter of voices and the stamping of horses +in the street. Now and then a fight broke out among the roisterers in +Piety Hollow. Once a young farm hand was killed with a knife. + +In and out through the crowd Sam went, pressing his wares. + +"Remember the long quiet Sunday afternoon," he said, pushing a paper +into the hands of a slow-thinking farmer. "Recipes for cooking new +dishes," he urged to the farmer's wife. "There is a page of new fashions +in dress," he told the young girl. + +Not until the last light was out in the last saloon in Piety Hollow, and +the last roisterer had driven off into the darkness carrying a Saturday +paper in his pocket, did Sam close the day's business. + +And it was on a Saturday night that he decided to drop paper selling. + +"I will take you into business with me," announced Freedom Smith, +stopping him as he hurried by. "You are getting too old to sell papers +and you know too much." + +Sam, still intent upon the money to be made on that particular Saturday +night, did not stop to discuss the matter with Freedom, but for a year +he had been looking quietly about for something to go into and now he +nodded his head as he hurried away. + +"It is the end of romance," shouted Telfer, who stood beside Freedom +Smith before Geiger's drug store and who had heard the offer. "A boy, +who has seen the secret workings of my mind, who has heard me spout Poe +and Browning, will become a merchant, dealing in stinking hides. I am +overcome by the thought." + +The next day, sitting in the garden back of his house, Telfer talked to +Sam of the matter at length. + +"For you, my boy, I put the matter of money in the first place," he +declared, leaning back in his chair, smoking a cigarette and from time +to time tapping Eleanor on the shoulder with his cane. "For any boy +I put money-making in the first place. It is only women and fools who +despise money-making. Look at Eleanor here. The time and thought she +puts into the selling of hats would be the death of me, but it has been +the making of her. See how fine and purposeful she has become. Without +the millinery business she would be a purposeless fool intent upon +clothes and with it she is all a woman should be. It is like a child to +her." + +Eleanor, who had turned to laugh at her husband, looked instead at the +ground and a shadow crossed her face. Telfer, who had begun talking +thoughtlessly, out of his excess of words, glanced from the woman to the +boy. He knew that the suggestion regarding a child had touched a secret +regret in Eleanor, and began trying to efface the shadow on her face +by throwing himself into the subject that chanced to be on his tongue, +making the words roll and tumble from his lips. + +"No matter what may come in the future, in our day money-making precedes +many virtues that are forever on men's lips," he declared fiercely as +though trying to down an opponent. "It is one of the virtues that proves +man not a savage. It has lifted him up--not money-making, but the power +to make money. Money makes life livable. It gives freedom and destroys +fear. Having it means sanitary houses and well-made clothes. It brings +into men's lives beauty and the love of beauty. It enables a man to go +adventuring after the stuff of life as I have done. + +"Writers are fond of telling stories of the crude excesses of great +wealth," he went on hurriedly, glancing again at Eleanor. "No doubt +the things they tell of do happen. Money, and not the ability and the +instinct to make money, is at fault. And what of the cruder excesses of +poverty, the drunken men who beat and starve their families, the grim +silences of the crowded, unsanitary houses of the poor, the inefficient, +and the defeated? Go sit around the lounging room of the most vapid +rich man's city club as I have done, and then sit among the workers of a +factory at the noon hour. Virtue, you will find, is no fonder of poverty +than you and I, and the man who has merely learned to be industrious, +and who has not acquired that eager hunger and shrewdness that enables +him to get on, may build up a strong dexterous body while his mind is +diseased and decaying." + +Grasping his cane and beginning to be carried away by the wind of his +eloquence Telfer forgot Eleanor and talked for his love of talking. + +"The mind that has in it the love of the beautiful, that stuff that +makes our poets, artists, musicians, and actors, needs this turn for +shrewd money getting or it will destroy itself," he declared. "And the +really great artists have it. In books and stories the great men starve +in garrets. In real life they are more likely to ride in carriages +on Fifth Avenue and have country places on the Hudson. Go, see for +yourself. Visit the starving genius in his garret. It is a hundred to +one that you will find him not only incapable in money getting but also +incapable in the very art for which he starves." + +After the hurried word from Freedom Smith, Sam began looking for a buyer +for the paper business. The place offered appealed to him and he wanted +a chance at it. In the buying of potatoes, butter, eggs, apples, and +hides he thought he could make money, also, he knew that the dogged +persistency with which he had kept at the putting of money in the bank +had caught Freedom's imagination, and he wanted to take advantage of the +fact. + +Within a few days the deal was made. Sam got three hundred and fifty +dollars for the list of newspaper customers, the peanut and popcorn +business and the transfer of the exclusive agencies he had arranged with +the dailies of Des Moines and St. Louis. Two boys bought the business, +backed by their fathers. A talk in the back room of the bank, with the +cashier telling of Sam's record as a depositor, and the seven hundred +dollars surplus clinched the deal. When it came to the deal with +Freedom, Sam took him into the back room at the bank and showed his +savings as he had shown them to the fathers of the two boys. Freedom was +impressed. He thought the boy would make money for him. Twice within a +week Sam had seen the silent suggestive power of cash. + +The deal Sam made with Freedom included a fair weekly wage, enough to +more than take care of all his wants, and in addition he was to have +two-thirds of all he saved Freedom in the buying. Freedom on the other +hand was to furnish horse, vehicle, and keep for the horse, while Sam +was to take care of the horse. The prices to be paid for the things +bought were to be fixed each morning by Freedom, and if Sam bought at +less than the prices named two-thirds of the savings went to him. The +arrangement was suggested by Sam, who thought he would make more from +the saving than from the wage. + +Freedom Smith discussed even the most trivial matter in a loud voice, +roaring and shouting in the store and on the streets. He was a great +inventor of descriptive names, having a name of his own for every man, +woman and child he knew and liked. "Old Maybe-Not" he called Windy +McPherson and would roar at him in the grocery asking him not to shed +rebel blood in the sugar barrel. He drove about the country in a low +phaeton buggy that rattled and squeaked enormously and had a wide rip +in the top. To Sam's knowledge neither the buggy nor Freedom were washed +during his stay with the man. He had a method of his own in buying. +Stopping in front of a farm house he would sit in his buggy and roar +until the farmer came out of the field or the house to talk with him. +And then haggling and shouting he would make his deal or drive on his +way while the farmer, leaning on the fence, laughed as at a wayward +child. + +Freedom lived in a large old brick house facing one of Caxton's best +streets. His house and yard were an eyesore to his neighbours who liked +him personally. He knew this and would stand on his front porch laughing +and roaring about it. "Good morning, Mary," he would shout at the neat +German woman across the street. "Wait and you'll see me clean up about +here. I'm going at it right now. I'm going to brush the flies off the +fence first." + +Once he ran for a county office and got practically every vote in the +county. + +Freedom had a passion for buying up old half-worn buggies and +agricultural implements, bringing them home to stand in the yard, +gathering rust and decay, and swearing they were as good as new. In the +lot were a half dozen buggies and a family carriage or two, a traction +engine, a mowing machine, several farm wagons and other farm tools gone +beyond naming. Every few days he came home bringing a new prize. They +overflowed the yard and crept onto the porch. Sam never knew him to sell +any of this stuff. He had at one time sixteen sets of harness all broken +and unrepaired in the barn and in a shed back of the house. A great +flock of chickens and two or three pigs wandered about among this junk +and all the children of the neighbourhood joined Freedom's four and ran +howling and shouting over and under the mass. + +Freedom's wife, a pale, silent woman, rarely came out of the house. +She had a liking for the industrious, hard-working Sam and occasionally +stood at the back door and talked with him in a low, even voice at +evening as he stood unhitching his horse after a day on the road. Both +she and Freedom treated him with great respect. + +As a buyer Sam was even more successful than at the paper selling. +He was a buyer by instinct, working a wide stretch of country very +systematically and within a year more than doubling the bulk of +Freedom's purchases. + +There is a little of Windy McPherson's grotesque pretentiousness in +every man and his son soon learned to look for and to take advantage of +it. He let men talk until they had exaggerated or overstated the value +of their goods, then called them sharply to accounts, and before they +had recovered from their confusion drove home the bargain. In Sam's day, +farmers did not watch the daily market reports, in fact, the markets +were not systematised and regulated as they were later, and the skill +of the buyer was of the first importance. Having the skill, Sam used +it constantly to put money into his pockets, but in some way kept the +confidence and respect of the men with whom he traded. + +The noisy, blustering Freedom was as proud as a father of the trading +ability that developed in the boy and roared his name up and down the +streets and in the stores, declaring him the smartest boy in Iowa. + +"Mighty little of old Maybe-Not in that boy," he would shout to the +loafers in the store. + +Although Sam had an almost painful desire for order and system in his +own affairs, he did not try to bring these influences into Freedom's +affairs, but kept his own records carefully and bought potatoes and +apples, butter and eggs, furs and hides, with untiring zeal, working +always to swell his commissions. Freedom took the risks in the business +and many times profited little, but the two liked and respected each +other and it was through Freedom's efforts that Sam finally got out of +Caxton and into larger affairs. + +One evening in the late fall Freedom came into the stable where Sam +stood taking the harness off his horse. + +"Here is a chance for you, my boy," he said, putting his hand +affectionately on Sam's shoulder. There was a note of tenderness in his +voice. He had written to the Chicago firm to whom he sold most of the +things he bought, telling of Sam and his ability, and the firm had +replied making an offer that Sam thought far beyond anything he might +hope for in Caxton. In his hand he held this offer. + +When Sam read the letter his heart jumped. He thought that it opened for +him a wide new field of effort and of money making. He thought that at +last he had come to the end of his boyhood and was to have his chance in +the city. Only that morning old Doctor Harkness had stopped him at the +door as he set out for work and, pointing over his shoulder with his +thumb to where in the house his mother lay, wasted and asleep, had told +him that in another week she would be gone, and Sam, heavy of heart and +filled with uneasy longing, had walked through the streets to Freedom's +stable wishing that he also might be gone. + +Now he walked across the stable floor and hung the harness he had taken +from the horse upon a peg in the wall. + +"I will be glad to go," he said heavily. + +Freedom walked out of the stable door beside the young McPherson who +had come to him as a boy and was now a broad-shouldered young man +of eighteen. He did not want to lose Sam. He had written the Chicago +company because of his affection for the boy and because he believed him +capable of something more than Caxton offered. Now he walked in silence +holding the lantern aloft and guiding the way among the wreckage in the +yard, filled with regrets. + +By the back door of the house stood the pale, tired-looking wife who, +putting out her hand, took the hand of the boy. There were tears in her +eyes. And then saying nothing Sam turned and hurried off up the street, +Freedom and his wife walked to the front gate and watched him go. From +a street corner, where he stopped in the shadow of a tree, Sam could +see them there, the wind swinging the lantern in Freedom's hand and the +slender little old wife making a white blotch against the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Sam went along the board sidewalk homeward bound, hurried by the driving +March wind that had sent the lantern swinging in Freedom's hand. At the +front of a white frame residence a grey-haired old man stood leaning on +the gate and looking at the sky. + +"We shall have a rain," he said in a quavering voice, as though giving +a decision in the matter, and then turned and without waiting for an +answer went along a narrow path into the house. + +The incident brought a smile to Sam's lips followed by a kind of +weariness of mind. Since the beginning of his work with Freedom he had, +day after day, come upon Henry Kimball standing by his gate and looking +at the sky. The man was one of Sam's old newspaper customers who stood +as a kind of figure in the town. It was said of him that in his youth he +had been a gambler on the Mississippi River and that he had taken part +in more than one wild adventure in the old days. After the Civil War he +had come to end his days in Caxton, living alone and occupying himself +by keeping year after year a carefully tabulated record of weather +variations. Once or twice a month during the warm season he stumbled +into Wildman's and, sitting by the stove, talked boastfully of the +accuracy of his records and the doings of a mangy dog that trotted at +his heels. In his present mood the endless sameness and uneventfulness +of the man's life seemed to Sam amusing and in some way sad. + +"To depend upon going to the gate and looking at the sky to give point +to a day--to look forward to and depend upon that--what deadliness!" he +thought, and, thrusting his hand into his pocket, felt with pleasure +the letter from the Chicago company that was to open so much of the big +outside world to him. + +In spite of the shock of unexpected sadness that had come with what he +felt was almost a definite parting with Freedom, and the sadness brought +on by his mother's approaching death, Sam felt a strong thrill of +confidence in his own future that made his homeward walk almost +cheerful. The thrill got from reading the letter handed him by Freedom +was renewed by the sight of old Henry Kimball at the gate, looking at +the sky. + +"I shall never be like that, sitting in a corner of the world watching +a mangy dog chase a ball and peering day after day at a thermometer," he +thought. + +The three years in Freedom Smith's service had taught Sam not to doubt +his ability to cope with such business problems as might come in his +way. He knew that he had become what he wanted to be, a good business +man, one of the men who direct and control the affairs in which they +are concerned because of a quality in them called Business Sense. He +recalled with pleasure the fact that the men of Caxton had stopped +calling him a bright boy and now spoke of him as a good business man. + +At the gate before his own house he stopped and stood thinking of these +things and of the dying woman within. Back into his mind came the old +man he had seen at the gate and with him the thought that his +mother's life had been as barren as that of the man who depended for +companionship upon a dog and a thermometer. + +"Indeed," he said to himself, pursuing the thought, "it has been worse. +She has not had a fortune on which to live in peace nor has she had the +remembrance of youthful days of wild adventure that must comfort the +last days of the old man. Instead she has been watching me as the old +man watches his thermometer and Father has been the dog in her house +chasing playthings." The figure pleased him. He stood at the gate, the +wind singing in the trees along the street and driving an occasional +drop of rain against his cheek, and thought of it and of his life with +his mother. During the last two or three years he had been trying to +make things up to her. After the sale of the newspaper business and the +beginning of his success with Freedom he had driven her from the washtub +and since the beginning of her ill health he had spent evening after +evening with her instead of going to Wildman's to sit with the four +friends and hear the talk that went on among them. No more did he walk +with Telfer or Mary Underwood on country roads but sat, instead, by the +bedside of the sick woman or, the night falling fair, helped her to an +arm chair upon the grass plot at the front of the house. + +The years, Sam felt, had been good years. They had brought him an +understanding of his mother and had given a seriousness and purpose to +the ambitious plans he continued to make for himself. Alone together, +the mother and he had talked little, the habit of a lifetime making much +speech impossible to her and the growing understanding of her making it +unnecessary to him. Now in the darkness, before the house, he thought +of the evenings he had spent with her and of the pitiful waste that had +been made of her fine life. Things that had hurt him and against which +he had been bitter and unforgiving became of small import, even the +doings of the pretentious Windy, who in the face of Jane's illness +continued to go off after pension day for long periods of drunkenness, +and who only came home to weep and wail through the house, when the +pension money was gone, regretting, Sam tried in fairness to think, the +loss of both the washwoman and the wife. + +"She has been the most wonderful woman in the world," he told himself +and tears of happiness came into his eyes at the thought of his friend, +John Telfer, who in bygone days had praised the mother to the newsboy +trotting beside him on moonlit roads. Into his mind came a picture of +her long gaunt face, ghastly now against the white of the pillows. A +picture of George Eliot, tacked to the wall behind a broken harness +in the kitchen of Freedom Smith's house, had caught his eye some days +before, and in the darkness he took it from his pocket and put it to his +lips, realising that in some indescribable way it was like his mother +as she had been before her illness. Freedom's wife had given him the +picture and he had been carrying it, taking it out of his pocket on +lonely stretches of road as he went about his work. + +Sam went quietly around the house and stood by an old shed, a relic of +an attempt by Windy to embark in raising chickens. He wanted to continue +the thoughts of his mother. He began recalling her youth and the details +of a long talk they had held together on the lawn before the house. It +was extraordinarily vivid in his mind. He thought that even now he could +remember every word that had been said. The sick woman had talked of her +youth in Ohio, and as she talked pictures had come into the boy's +mind. She had told him of her days as a bound girl in the family of +a thin-lipped, hard-fisted New Englander, who had come West to take a +farm, and of her struggles to obtain an education, of the pennies saved +to buy books, of her joy when she had passed examinations and become a +school teacher, and of her marriage to Windy--then John McPherson. + +Into the Ohio village the young McPherson had come, to cut a figure in +the town's life. Sam had smiled at the picture she drew of the young man +who walked up and down the village street with girls on his arms, and +who taught a Bible class in the Sunday school. + +When Windy proposed to the young school teacher she had accepted him +eagerly, thinking it unbelievably romantic that so dashing a man should +have chosen so obscure a figure among all the women of the town. + +"And even now I am not sorry although it has meant nothing but labour +and unhappiness for me," the sick woman had told her son. + +After marriage to the young dandy, Jane had come with him to Caxton +where he bought a store and where, within three years, he had put the +store into the sheriff's hands and his wife into the position of town +laundress. + +In the darkness a grim smile, half scorn, half amusement, had flitted +across the face of the dying woman as she told of a winter when Windy +and another young fellow went, from schoolhouse to schoolhouse, over the +state giving a show. The ex-soldier had become a singer of comic songs +and had written letter after letter to the young wife telling of the +applause that greeted his efforts. Sam could picture the performances, +the little dimly-lighted schoolhouses with the weatherbeaten faces +shining in the light of the leaky magic lantern, and the delighted +Windy running here and there, talking the jargon of stageland, arraying +himself in his motley and strutting upon the little stage. + +"And all winter he did not send me a penny," the sick woman had said, +interrupting his thoughts. + +Aroused at last to expression, and filled with the memory of her youth, +the silent woman had talked of her own people. Her father had been +killed in the woods by a falling tree. Of her mother she told an +anecdote, touching it briefly and with a grim humour that surprised her +son. + +The young school teacher had gone to call upon her mother once and for +an hour had sat in the parlour of an Ohio farmhouse while a fierce old +woman looked at her with bold questioning eyes that made the daughter +feel she had been a fool to come. + +At the railroad station she had heard an anecdote of her mother. The +story ran, that once a burly tramp came to the farmhouse, and finding +the woman alone tried to bully her, and that the tramp, and the woman, +then in her prime, fought for an hour in the back yard of the house. +The railroad agent, who told Jane the story, threw back his head and +laughed. + +"She knocked him out, too," he said, "knocked him cold upon the ground +and then filled him up with hard cider so that he came reeling into town +declaring her the finest woman in the state." + +In the darkness by the broken shed Sam's mind turned from thoughts of +his mother to his sister Kate and of her love affair with the young +farmer. He thought with sadness of how she too had suffered because of +the failings of the father, of how she had been compelled to go out of +the house to wander in the dark streets to avoid the endless evenings of +war talk always brought on by a guest in the McPherson household, and of +the night when, getting a rig from Culvert's livery, she had driven off +alone into the country to return in triumph to pack her clothes and show +her wedding ring. + +Before him there rose a picture of a summer afternoon when he had seen +a part of the love making that had preceded this. He had gone into the +store to see his sister when the young farmer came in, looked awkwardly +about and pushed a new gold watch across the counter to Kate. A sudden +wave of respect for his sister had pervaded the boy. "What a sum it must +have cost," he thought, and looked with new interest at the back of the +lover and at the flushed cheek and shining eyes of his sister. When the +lover, turning, had seen young McPherson standing at the counter, he +laughed self-consciously and walked out at the door. Kate had been +embarrassed and secretly pleased and flattered by the look in her +brother's eyes, but had pretended to treat the gift lightly, twirling +it carelessly back and forth on the counter and walking up and down +swinging her arms. + +"Don't go telling," she had said. + +"Then don't go pretending," the boy had answered. + +Sam thought that his sister's indiscretion, which had brought her a babe +and a husband in the same month had, after all, ended better than the +indiscretion of his mother in her marriage with Windy. + +Rousing himself, he went into the house. A neighbour woman, employed for +the purpose, had prepared the evening meal and now began complaining of +his lateness, saying that the food had got cold. + +Sam ate in silence. While he ate the woman went out of the house and +presently returned, bringing a daughter. + +There was in Caxton a code that would not allow a woman to be alone in +a house with a man. Sam wondered if the bringing of the daughter was an +attempt on the part of the woman to abide by the letter of the code, +if she thought of the sick woman in the house as one already gone. The +thought amused and saddened him. + +"You would have thought her safe," he mused. She was fifty, small, +nervous and worn and wore a set of ill-fitting false teeth that rattled +as she talked. When she did not talk she rattled them with her tongue +because of nervousness. + +In at the kitchen door came Windy, far gone in drink. He stood by the +door holding to the knob with his hand and trying to get control of +himself. + +"My wife--my wife is dying. She may die any day," he wailed, tears +standing in his eyes. + +The woman with the daughter went into the little parlour where a bed +had been put for the sick woman. Sam sat at the kitchen table dumb with +anger and disgust as Windy, lurching forward, fell into a chair and +began sobbing loudly. In the road outside a man driving a horse stopped +and Sam could hear the scraping of the wheels against the buggy body as +the man turned in the narrow street. Above the scraping of the wheels +rose a voice, swearing profanely. The wind continued to blow and it had +begun to rain. + +"He has got into the wrong street," thought the boy stupidly. + +Windy, his head upon his hands, wept like a brokenhearted boy, his sobs +echoing through the house, his breath heavy with liquor tainting the air +of the room. In a corner by the stove the mother's ironing board stood +against the wall and the sight of it added fuel to the anger smouldering +in Sam's heart. He remembered the day when he had stood in the store +doorway with his mother and had seen the dismal and amusing failure of +his father with the bugle, and of the months before Kate's wedding, when +Windy had gone blustering about town threatening to kill her lover and +the mother and boy had stayed with the girl, out of sight in the house, +sick with humiliation. + +The drunken man, laying his head upon the table, fell asleep, his snores +replacing the sobs that had stirred the boy's anger. Sam began thinking +again of his mother's life. + +The effort he had made to repay her for the hardness of her life now +seemed utterly fruitless. "I would like to repay him," he thought, +shaken with a sudden spasm of hatred as he looked at the man before him. +The cheerless little kitchen, the cold, half-baked potatoes and sausages +on the table, and the drunken man asleep, seemed to him a kind of symbol +of the life that had been lived in that house, and with a shudder he +turned his face and stared at the wall. + +He thought of a dinner he had once eaten at Freedom Smith's house. +Freedom had brought the invitation into the stables on that night just +as to-night he had brought the letter from the Chicago company, and +just as Sam was shaking his head in refusal of the invitation in at the +stable door had come the children. Led by the eldest, a great tomboy +girl of fourteen with the strength of a man and an inclination to burst +out of her clothes at unexpected places, they had come charging into the +stables to carry Sam off to the dinner, Freedom laughingly urging them +on, his voice roaring in the stable so that the horses jumped about in +their stalls. Into the house they had dragged him, the baby, a boy of +four, sitting astride his back and beating on his head with a woollen +cap, and Freedom swinging a lantern and giving an occasional helpful +push with his hand. + +A picture of the long table covered with the white cloth at the end of +the big dining room in Freedom's house came back into the mind of +the boy now sitting in the barren little kitchen before the untasted, +badly-cooked food. Upon it lay a profusion of bread and meat and great +dishes heaped with steaming potatoes. At his own house there had +always been just enough food for the single meal. The thing was nicely +calculated, when you had finished the table was bare. + +How he had enjoyed that dinner after the long day on the road. With a +flourish and a roar at the children Freedom heaped high the plates and +passed them about, the wife or the tomboy girl bringing unending fresh +supplies from the kitchen. The joy of the evening with its talk of the +children in school, its sudden revelation of the womanliness of the +tomboy girl, and its air of plenty and good living haunted the mind of +the boy. + +"My mother never knew anything like that," he thought. + +The drunken man who had been sleeping aroused himself and began talking +loudly--some old forgotten grievance coming back to his mind, he talked +of the cost of school books. + +"They change the books in the school too often," he declared in a loud +voice, turning and facing the kitchen stove, as though addressing an +audience. "It is a scheme to graft on old soldiers who have children. I +will not stand it." + +Sam, enraged beyond speech, tore a leaf from a notebook and scrawled a +message upon it. + +"Be silent," he wrote. "If you say another word or make another sound to +disturb mother I will choke you and throw you like a dead dog into the +street." + +Reaching across the table and touching his father on the hand with a +fork taken from among the dishes, he laid the note upon the table under +the lamp before his eyes. He was fighting with himself to control a +desire to spring across the room and kill the man who he believed had +brought his mother to her death and who now sat bellowing and talking +at her very death bed. The desire distorted his mind so that he stared +about the kitchen like one seized with an insane nightmare. + +Windy, taking the note in his hand, read it slowly and then, not +understanding its import and but half getting its sense, put it in his +pocket. + +"A dog is dead, eh?" he shouted. "Well you're getting too big and smart, +lad. What do I care for a dead dog?" + +Sam did not answer. Rising cautiously, he crept around the table and put +his hand upon the throat of the babbling old man. + +"I must not kill," he kept telling himself aloud, as though talking to a +stranger. "I must choke until he is silent, but I must not kill." + +In the kitchen the two men struggled silently. Windy, unable to rise, +struck out wildly and helplessly with his feet. Sam, looking down at +him and studying the eyes and the colour in the cheeks, realised with a +start that he had not for years seen the face of his father. How vividly +it stamped itself upon his mind now, and how coarse and sodden it had +become. + +"I could repay all of the years mother has spent over the dreary washtub +by just one long, hard grip at this lean throat. I could kill him with +so little extra pressure," he thought. + +The eyes began to stare at him and the tongue to protrude. Across the +forehead ran a streak of mud picked up somewhere in the long afternoon +of drunken carousing. + +"If I were to press hard now and kill him I would see his face as it +looks now all the days of my life," thought the boy. + +In the silence of the house he heard the voice of the neighbour woman +speaking sharply to her daughter. The familiar, dry, tired cough of the +sick woman followed. Sam took the unconscious old man in his arms and +went carefully and silently out at the kitchen door. The rain beat down +upon him and, as he went around the house with his burden, the wind, +shaking loose a dead branch from a small apple tree in the yard, blew it +against his face, leaving a long smarting scratch. At the fence before +the house he stopped and threw his burden down a short grassy bank into +the road. Then turning he went, bareheaded, through the gate and up the +street. + +"I will go for Mary Underwood," he thought, his mind returning to the +friend who years before had walked with him on country roads and whose +friendship he had dropped because of John Telfer's tirades against all +women. He stumbled along the sidewalk, the rain beating down upon his +bare head. + +"We need a woman in our house," he kept saying over and over to himself. +"We need a woman in our house." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Leaning against the wall under the veranda of Mary Underwood's house, +Sam tried to get in his mind a remembrance of what had brought him +there. He had walked bareheaded through Main Street and out along a +country road. Twice he had fallen, covering his clothes with mud. He +had forgotten the purpose of his walk and had tramped on and on. The +unexpected and terrible hatred of his father that had come upon him in +the tense silence of the kitchen had so paralysed his brain that he now +felt light-headed and wonderfully happy and carefree. + +"I have been doing something," he thought; "I wonder what it is." + +The house faced a grove of pine trees and was reached by climbing a +little rise and following a winding road out beyond the graveyard and +the last of the village lights. The wild spring rain pounded and rattled +on the tin roof overhead, and Sam, his back closely pressed against the +front of the house, fought to regain control of his mind. + +For an hour he stood there staring into the darkness and watched with +delight the progress of the storm. He had--an inheritance from his +mother--a love of thunderstorms. He remembered a night when he was a boy +and his mother had got out of bed and gone here and there through the +house singing. She had sung softly so that the sleeping father did +not hear, and in his bed upstairs Sam had lain awake listening to the +noises--the rain on the roof, the occasional crash of thunder, the +snoring of Windy, and the unusual and, he thought, beautiful sound of +the mother singing in the storm. + +Now, lifting up his head, he looked about with delight. Trees in the +grove in front of him bent and tossed in the wind. The inky blackness of +the night was relieved by the flickering oil lamp in the road beyond +the graveyard and, in the distance, by the lights streaming out at the +windows of the houses. The light coming out of the house against which +he stood made a little cylinder of brightness among the pine trees +through which the raindrops fell gleaming and sparkling. An occasional +flash of lightning lit up the trees and the winding road, and the +cannonry of the skies rolled and echoed overhead. A kind of wild song +sang in Sam's heart. + +"I wish it would last all night," he thought, his mind fixed on the +singing of his mother in the dark house when he was a boy. + +The door opened and a woman stepped out upon the veranda and stood +before him facing the storm, the wind tossing the soft kimono in which +she was clad and the rain wetting her face. Under the tin roof, the air +was filled with the rattling reverberation of the rain. The woman lifted +her head and, with the rain beating down upon her, began singing, her +fine contralto voice rising above the rattle of the rain on the roof and +going on uninterrupted by the crash of the thunder. She sang of a lover +riding through the storm to his mistress. One refrain persisted in the +song-- + + "He rode and he thought of her red, red lips," + +sang the woman, putting her hand upon the railing of the little porch +and leaning forward into the storm. + +Sam was amazed. The woman standing before him was Mary Underwood, who +had been his friend when he was a boy in school and toward whom his mind +had turned after the tragedy in the kitchen. The figure of the woman +standing singing before him became a part of his thoughts of his mother +singing on the stormy night in the house and his mind wandered on, +seeing pictures as he used to see them when a boy walking under +the stars and listening to the talk of John Telfer. He saw a +broad-shouldered man shouting defiance to the storm as he rode down a +mountain path. + +"And he laughed at the rain on his wet, wet cloak," went on the voice of +the singer. + +Mary Underwood's singing there in the rain made her seem near and +likeable as she had seemed to him when he was a barefoot boy. + +"John Telfer was wrong about her," he thought. + +She turned and faced him. Tiny streams of water ran from her hair down +across her cheeks. A flash of lightning cut the darkness, illuminating +the spot where Sam, now a broad-shouldered man, stood with the mud upon +his clothes and the bewildered look upon his face. A sharp exclamation +of surprise broke from her lips: + +"Hello, Sam! What are you doing here? You had better get in out of the +rain." + +"I like it here," replied Sam, lifting his head and looking past her at +the storm. + +Walking to the door and standing with her hand upon the knob, Mary +looked into the darkness. + +"You have been a long time coming to see me," she said, "come in." + +Within the house, with the door closed, the rattle of the rain on the +veranda roof sank to a subdued, quiet drumming. Piles of books lay upon +a table in the centre of the room and there were other books on the +shelves along the walls. On a table burned a student's lamp and in the +corners of the room lay heavy shadows. + +Sam stood by the wall near the door looking about with half-seeing eyes. + +Mary, who had gone to another part of the house and who now returned +clad in a long cloak, looked at him with quick curiosity, and began +moving about the room picking up odds and ends of woman's clothing +scattered on the chairs. Kneeling, she lighted a fire under some sticks +piled in an open grate at the side of the room. + +"It was the storm made me want to sing," she said self-consciously, and +then briskly, "we shall have to be drying you out; you have fallen in +the road and got yourself covered with mud." + +From being morose and silent Sam became talkative. An idea had come into +his mind. + +"I have come here courting," he thought; "I have come to ask Mary +Underwood to be my wife and live in my house." + +The woman, kneeling by the blazing sticks, made a picture that aroused +something that had been sleeping in him. The heavy cloak she wore, +falling away, showed the round little shoulders imperfectly covered by +the kimono, wet and clinging to them. The slender, youthful figure, the +soft grey hair and the serious little face, lit by the burning sticks +caused a jumping of his heart. + +"We are needing a woman in our house," he said heavily, repeating the +words that had been on his lips as he stumbled through the storm-swept +streets and along the mud-covered roads. "We are needing a woman in our +house, and I have come to take you there. + +"I intend to marry you," he added, lurching across the room and grasping +her roughly by the shoulders. "Why not? I am needing a woman." + +Mary Underwood was dismayed and frightened by the face looking down at +her, and by the strong hands clenched upon her shoulders. In his youth +she had conceived a kind of maternal passion for the newsboy and had +planned a future for him. Her plans if followed would have made him a +scholar, a man living his life among books and ideas. Instead, he had +chosen to live his life among men, to be a money-maker, to drive about +the country like Freedom Smith, making deals with farmers. She had seen +him driving at evening through the street to Freedom's house, going in +and out of Wildman's, and walking through the streets with men. In a dim +way she knew that an influence had been at work upon him to win him from +the things of which she had dreamed and she had secretly blamed John +Telfer, the talking, laughing idler. Now, out of the storm, the boy had +come back to her, his hands and his clothes covered with the mud of +the road, and talked to her, a woman old enough to be his mother, +of marriage and of coming to live with him in his house. She stood, +chilled, looking into the eager, strong face and the eyes with the +pained, dazed look in them. + +Under her gaze, something of the old feeling of the boy came back to +Sam, and he began vaguely trying to tell her of it. + +"It was not the talk of Telfer drove me from you," he began, "it was +because you talked so much of the schools and of books. I was tired +of them. I could not go on year after year sitting in a stuffy little +schoolroom when there was so much money to be made in the world. I grew +tired of the school teachers, drumming with their fingers on the desks +and looking out at the windows at men passing in the street. I wanted to +get out of there and into the streets myself." + +Dropping his hands from her shoulders, he sat down in a chair and +stared into the fire, now blazing steadily. Steam began to rise from +his trousers legs. His mind, still working beyond his control, began to +reconstruct an old boyhood fancy, half his own, half John Telfer's, +that had years before come into his mind. It concerned a picture he and +Telfer had made of the ideal scholar. The picture had, as its central +figure, a stoop-shouldered, feeble old man stumbling along the street, +muttering to himself and poking in a gutter with a stick. The picture +was a caricature of puttering old Frank Huntley, superintendent of the +Caxton schools. + +Sitting before the fire in Mary Underwood's house, become, for the +moment, a boy, facing a boy's problems, Sam did not want to be such a +man. He wanted only that in scholarship which would help him to be the +kind of man he was bent on being, a man of the world doing the work of +the world and making money by his work. Things he had been unable to get +expressed when he was a boy and her friend, coming again into his mind, +he felt that he must here and now make it plain to Mary Underwood that +the schools were not giving him what he wanted. His brain worked on the +problem of how to tell her about it. + +Turning, he looked at her and said earnestly: "I am going to quit the +schools. It is not your fault, but I am going to quit just the same." + +Mary, who had been looking down at the great mud-covered figure in the +chair began to understand. A light came into her eyes. Going to the +door opening into a stairway leading to sleeping rooms above, she called +sharply, "Auntie, come down here at once. There is a sick man here." + +A startled, trembling voice answered from above, "Who is it?" + +Mary Underwood did not answer. She came back to Sam and, putting her +hand gently on his shoulder, said, "It is your mother and you are only a +sick, half-crazed boy after all. Is she dead? Tell me about it." + +Sam shook his head. "She is still there in the bed, coughing." He roused +himself and stood up. "I have just killed my father," he announced. "I +choked him and threw him down the bank into the road in front of the +house. He made horrible noises in the kitchen and mother was tired and +wanted to sleep." + +Mary Underwood began running about the room. From a little alcove under +a stairway she took clothes, throwing them upon the floor about the +room. She pulled on a stocking and, unconscious of Sam's presence, +raised her skirts and fastened it. Then, putting one shoe on the +stockinged foot and the other on the bare one, she turned to him. "We +will go back to your house. I think you are right. You need a woman +there." + +In the street she walked rapidly along, clinging to the arm of the tall +fellow who strode silently beside her. A cheerfulness had come over +Sam. He felt he had accomplished something--something he had set out to +accomplish. He again thought of his mother and drifting into the notion +that he was on his way home from work at Freedom Smith's, began planning +the evening he would spend with her. + +"I will tell her of the letter from the Chicago company and of what I +will do when I go to the city," he thought. + +At the gate before the McPherson house Mary looked into the road below +the grassy bank that ran down from the fence, but in the darkness she +could see nothing. The rain continued to fall and the wind screamed and +shouted as it rushed through the bare branches of the trees. Sam went +through the gate and around the house to the kitchen door intent upon +getting to his mother's bedside. + +In the house the neighbour woman sat asleep in a chair before the +kitchen stove. The daughter had gone. + +Sam went through the house to the parlour and sat down in a chair beside +his mother's bed, picking up her hand and holding it in his own. "She +must be asleep," he thought. + +At the kitchen door Mary Underwood stopped, and, turning, ran away into +the darkness along the street. By the kitchen fire the neighbour +woman still slept. In the parlour Sam, sitting on the chair beside his +mother's bed, looked about him. A lamp burned dimly upon the little +stand beside the bed and the light of it fell upon the portrait of a +tall, aristocratic-looking woman with rings on her fingers, that hung +upon the wall. The picture belonged to Windy and was claimed by him as a +portrait of his mother, and it had once brought on a quarrel between Sam +and his sister. + +Kate had taken the portrait of the lady seriously, and the boy had come +upon her sitting in a chair before it, her hair rearranged and her hands +lying in her lap in imitation of the pose maintained so haughtily by the +great lady who looked down at her. + +"It is a fraud," he had declared, irritated by what he believed his +sister's devotion to one of the father's pretensions. "It is a fraud +he has picked up somewhere and now claims as his mother to make people +believe he is something big." + +The girl, ashamed at having been caught in the pose, and furious because +of the attack upon the authenticity of the portrait, had gone into a +spasm of indignation, putting her hands to her ears and stamping on the +floor with her foot. Then she had run across the room and dropped upon +her knees before a little couch, buried her face in a pillow and shook +with anger and grief. + +Sam had turned and walked out of the room. The emotions of the sister +had seemed to him to have the flavour of one of Windy's outbreaks. + +"She likes it," he had thought, dismissing the incident. "She likes +believing in lies. She is like Windy and would rather believe in them +than not." + + * * * * * + +Mary Underwood ran through the rain to John Telfer's house and beat on +the door with her fist until Telfer, followed by Eleanor, holding a lamp +above her head, appeared at the door. With Telfer she went back through +the streets to the front of Sam's house thinking of the terrible choked +and disfigured man they should find there. She went along clinging to +Telfer's arm as she had clung to Sam's, unconscious of her bare head +and scanty attire. In his hand Telfer carried a lantern secured from the +stable. + +In the road before the house they found nothing. Telfer went up and down +swinging the lantern and peering into gutters. The woman walked beside +him, her skirts lifted and the mud splashing upon her bare leg. + +Suddenly Telfer threw back his head and laughed. Taking her hand he led +Mary with a rush up the bank and through the gate. + +"What a muddle-headed old fool I am!" he cried. "I am getting old and +addle-pated! Windy McPherson is not dead! Nothing could kill that old +war horse! He was in at Wildman's grocery after nine o'clock to-night +covered with mud and swearing he had been in a fight with Art Sherman. +Poor Sam and you--to have come to me and to have found me a stupid ass! +Fool! Fool! What a fool I have become!" + +In at the kitchen door ran Mary and Telfer, frightening the woman by +the stove so that she sprang to her feet and began nervously making the +false teeth rattle with her tongue. In the parlour they found Sam, his +head upon the edge of the bed, asleep. In his hand he held the cold hand +of Jane McPherson. She had been dead for an hour. Mary Underwood stooped +over and kissed his wet hair as the neighbour woman came in at the +doorway bearing the kitchen lamp, and John Telfer, holding his finger to +his lips, commanded silence. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The funeral of Jane McPherson was a trying affair for her son. He +thought that his sister Kate, with the babe in her arms, had become +coarsened--she looked frumpish and, while they were in the house, had +an air of having quarrelled with her husband when they came out of +their bedroom in the morning. During the funeral service Sam sat in the +parlour, astonished and irritated by the endless number of women that +crowded into the house. They were everywhere, in the kitchen, the +sleeping room back of the parlour; and in the parlour, where the +dead woman lay in her coffin, they were massed. When the thin-lipped +minister, holding a book in his hand, held forth upon the virtues of +the dead woman, they wept. Sam looked at the floor and thought that thus +they would have wept over the body of the dead Windy, had his fingers +but tightened a trifle. He wondered if the minister would have talked +in the same way--blatantly and without knowledge--of the virtues of the +dead. In a chair at the side of the coffin the bereaved husband, in new +black clothes, wept audibly. The baldheaded, officious undertaker kept +moving nervously about, intent upon the ritual of his trade. + +During the service, a man sitting behind him dropped a note on the +floor at Sam's feet. Sam picked it up and read it, glad of something to +distract his attention from the voice of the minister, and the faces of +the weeping women, none of whom had before been in the house and all +of whom he thought strikingly lacking in a sense of the sacredness of +privacy. The note was from John Telfer. + +"I will not come to your mother's funeral," he wrote. "I respected your +mother while she lived and I will leave you alone with her now that she +is dead. In her memory I will hold a ceremony in my heart. If I am in +Wildman's, I may ask the man to quit selling soap and tobacco for the +moment and to close and lock the door. If I am at Valmore's shop, I will +go up into his loft and listen to him pounding on the anvil below. If +he or Freedom Smith go to your house, I warn them I will cut their +friendship. When I see the carriages going through the street and know +that the thing is right well done and over, I will buy flowers and take +them to Mary Underwood as an appreciation of the living in the name of +the dead." + +The note cheered and comforted Sam. It gave him back a grip of something +that had slipped from him. + +"It is good sense, after all," he thought, and realised that even in the +days when he was being made to suffer horrors, and in the face of the +fact that Jane McPherson's long, hard role was just being played out +to the end, the farmer in the field was sowing his corn, Valmore +was beating upon his anvil, and John Telfer was writing notes with +a flourish. He arose, interrupting the minister's discourse. Mary +Underwood had come in just as the minister began talking and had dropped +into an obscure corner near the door leading into the street. Sam +crowded past the women who stared and the minister who frowned and the +baldheaded undertaker who wrung his hands and, dropping the note into +her lap, said, oblivious of the people looking and listening with +breathless curiosity, "It is from John Telfer. Read it. Even he, hating +women as he did, is now bringing flowers to your door." + +In the room a wind of whispered comments sprang up. Women, putting their +heads together and their hands before their faces, nodded toward +the school teacher, and the boy, unconscious of the sensation he had +created, went back to his chair and looked again at the floor, waiting +until the talk and the singing of songs and the parading through the +streets should be ended. Again the minister began reading from the book. + +"I have become older than all of these people here," thought the youth. +"They play at life and death, and I have felt it between the fingers of +my hand." + +Mary Underwood, lacking Sam's unconsciousness of the people, looked +about with burning cheeks. Seeing the women whispering and putting their +heads together, a chill of fear ran through her. Into the room had been +thrust the face of an old enemy to her--the scandal of a small town. +Picking up the note she slipped out at the door and stole away along +the street. The old maternal love for Sam had returned strengthened and +ennobled by the terror through which she had passed with him that night +in the rain. Going to her house she whistled the collie dog and set out +along a country road. At the edge of a grove of trees she stopped, sat +down on a log, and read Telfer's note. From the soft ground into which +her feet sank there came the warm pungent smell of the new growth. Tears +came into her eyes. She thought that in a few days much had come to her. +She had got a boy upon whom she could pour out the mother love in her +heart, and she had made a friend of Telfer, whom she had long regarded +with fear and doubt. + +For a month Sam lingered in Caxton. It seemed to him there was something +that wanted doing there. He sat with the men at the back of Wildman's, +and walked aimlessly through the streets and out of the town along the +country roads, where men worked all day in the fields behind sweating +horses, ploughing the land. The thrill of spring was in the air, and +in the evening a song sparrow sang in the apple tree below his bedroom +window. Sam walked and loitered in silence, looking at the ground. +In his mind was the dread of people. The talk of the men in the store +wearied him and when he went alone into the country he found himself +accompanied by the voices of all of those he had come out of town to +escape. On the street corner the thin-lipped, brown-bearded minister +stopped him and talked of the future life as he had stopped and talked +to a bare-legged newsboy. + +"Your mother," he said, "has but gone before. It is for you to get into +the narrow path and follow her. God has sent this sorrow as a warning +to you. He wants you also to get into the way of life and in the end to +join her. Begin coming to our church. Join in the work of the Christ. +Find truth." + +Sam, who had listened without hearing, shook his head and went on. The +minister's talk seemed no more than a meaningless jumble of words out of +which he got but one thought. + +"Find truth," he repeated to himself after the minister, and let his +mind play with the idea. "The best men are all trying to do that. They +spend their lives at the task. They are all trying to find truth." + +He went along the street, pleased with himself because of the +interpretation he had put upon the minister's words. The terrible +moments in the kitchen followed by his mother's death had put a new +look of seriousness into his face and he felt within him a new sense of +responsibility to the dead woman and to himself. Men stopped him on the +street and wished him well in the city. News of his leaving had become +public. Things in which Freedom Smith was concerned were always public +affairs. + +"He would take a drum with him to make love to a neighbour's wife," said +John Telfer. + +Sam felt that in a way he was a child of Caxton. Early it had taken +him to its bosom; it had made of him a semi-public character; it had +encouraged him in his money-making, humiliated him through his father, +and patronised him lovingly because of his toiling mother. When he was +a boy, scurrying between the legs of the drunkards in Piety Hollow of a +Saturday night, there was always some one to speak a word to him of his +morals and to shout at him a cheering word of advice. Had he elected +to remain there, with the thirty-five hundred dollars already in the +Savings Bank--built to that during his years with Freedom Smith--he +might soon become one of the town's solid men. + +He did not want to stay. He felt that his call was in another place and +that he would go there gladly. He wondered why he did not get on the +train and be off. + +One night when he had been late on the road, loitering by fences, +hearing the lonely barking of dogs at distant farmhouses, getting the +smell of the new-ploughed ground into his nostrils, he came into town +and sat down on a low iron fence that ran along by the platform of the +railroad station, to wait for the midnight train north. Trains had taken +on a new meaning to him since any day might see him on such a train +bound into his new life. + +A man, with two bags in his hands, came on the station platform followed +by two women. + +"Here, watch these," he said to the women, setting the bags upon +the platform; "I will go for the tickets," and disappeared into the +darkness. + +The two women resumed their interrupted talk. + +"Ed's wife has been poorly these ten years," said one of them. "It will +be better for her and for Ed now that she is dead, but I dread the long +ride. I wish she had died when I was in Ohio two years ago. I am sure to +be train-sick." + +Sam, sitting in the darkness, was thinking of a part of one of John +Telfer's old talks with him. + +"They are good people but they are not your people. You will go away +from here. You will be a big man of dollars, it is plain." + +He began listening idly to the two women. The man had a shop for mending +shoes on a side street back of Geiger's drug store and the two women, +one short and round, one long and thin, kept a small, dingy millinery +shop and were Eleanor Telfer's only competitors. + +"Well, the town knows her now for what she is," said the tall woman. +"Milly Peters says she won't rest until she has put that stuck-up Mary +Underwood in her place. Her mother worked in the McPherson house and +it was her told Milly. I never heard such a story. To think of Jane +McPherson working all these years and then having such goings-on in her +house when she lay dying, Milly says that Sam went away early in the +evening and came home late with that Underwood thing, half dressed, +hanging on his arm. Milly's mother looked out of the window and saw +them. Then she ran out by the kitchen stove and pretended to be asleep. +She wanted to see what was up. And the bold hussy came right into the +house with Sam. Then she went away, and after a while back she came with +that John Telfer. Milly is going to see that Eleanor Telfer finds it +out. I guess it will bring her down, too. And there is no telling +how many other men in this town Mary Underwood is running with. Milly +says----" + +The two women turned as out of the darkness came a tall figure roaring +and swearing. Two hands flashed out and sank into their hair. + +"Stop it!" growled Sam, beating the two heads together, "stop your dirty +lies!--you ugly she-beasts!" + +Hearing the two women screaming the man who had gone for the railroad +tickets came running down the station platform followed by Jerry Donlin. +Springing forward Sam knocked the shoemaker over the iron fence into a +newly spaded flower bed and then turned to the baggage man. + +"They were telling lies about Mary Underwood," he shouted. "She tried to +save me from killing my father and now they are telling lies about her." + +The two women picked up the bags and ran whimpering away along +the station platform. Jerry Donlin climbed over the iron fence and +confronted the surprised and frightened shoemaker. + +"What the Hell are you doing in my flower bed?" he growled. + + * * * * * + +Hurrying through the streets Sam's mind was in a ferment. Like the Roman +emperor he wished that all the world had but one head that he might cut +it off with a slash. The town that had seemed so paternal, so cheery, so +intent upon wishing him well, now seemed horrible. He thought of it as a +great, crawling, slimy thing lying in wait amid the cornfields. + +"To be saying that of her, of that white soul!" he exclaimed aloud in +the empty street, all of his boyish loyalty and devotion to the woman +who had put out a hand to him in his hour of trouble aroused and burning +in him. + +He wished that he might meet another man and could hit him also a +swinging blow on the nose as he had hit the amazed shoemaker. He went to +his own house and, leaning on the gate, stood looking at it and swearing +meaninglessly. Then, turning, he went again through the deserted streets +past the railroad station where, the midnight train having come and gone +and Jerry Donlin having gone home for the night, all was dark and +quiet. He was filled with horror of what Mary Underwood had seen at Jane +McPherson's funeral. + +"It is better to be utterly bad than to speak ill of another," he +thought. + +For the first time he realised another side of village life. In fancy +he saw going past him on the dark road a long file of women, women with +coarse unlighted faces and dead eyes. Many of the faces he knew. They +were the faces of Caxton wives at whose houses he had delivered papers. +He remembered how eagerly they had run out of their houses to get the +papers and how they hung day after day over the details of sensational +murder cases. Once, when a Chicago girl had been murdered in a dive +and the details were unusually revolting, two women, unable to restrain +their curiosity, had come to the station to wait for the train bringing +the newspapers and Sam had heard them rolling the horrid mess over and +over on their tongues. + +In every city and in every village there is a class of women, the +thought of whom paralyses the mind. They live their lives in small, +unaired, unsanitary houses, and go on year after year washing dishes and +clothes--only their fingers occupied. They read no good books, think no +clean thoughts, are made love to as John Telfer had said, with kisses in +a darkened room by a shame-faced yokel and, after marrying some such +a yokel, live lives of unspeakable blankness. Into the houses of these +women come the husbands at evening, tired and uncommunicative, to eat +hurriedly and then go again into the streets or, the blessing of +utter physical exhaustion having come to them, to sit for an hour in +stockinged feet before crawling away to sleep and oblivion. + +In these women is no light, no vision. They have instead certain fixed +ideas to which they cling with a persistency touching heroism. To the +man they have snatched from society they cling also with a tenacity +to be measured only by their love of a roof over their heads and the +craving for food to put into their stomachs. Being mothers, they are the +despair of reformers, the shadow on the vision of dreamers and they put +the black dread upon the heart of the poet who cries, "The female of +the species is more deadly than the male." At their worst they are to be +seen drunk with emotion amid the lurid horrors of a French Revolution +or immersed in the secret whispering, creeping terror of a religious +persecution. At their best they are mothers of half mankind. Wealth +coming to them, they throw themselves into garish display of it and +flash upon the sight of Newport or Palm Beach. In their native lair in +the close little houses, they sleep in the bed of the man who has put +clothes upon their backs and food into their mouths because that is the +usage of their kind and give him of their bodies grudgingly or willingly +as the laws of their physical needs direct. They do not love, they sell, +instead, their bodies in the market place and cry out that man shall +witness their virtue because they had had the joy of finding one buyer +instead of the many of the red sisterhood. A fierce animalism in them +makes them cling to the babe at their breast and in the days of its +softness and loveliness they close their eyes and try to catch again +an old fleeting dream of their girlhood, a something vague, shadowy, no +longer a part of them, brought with the babe out of the infinite. Having +passed beyond the land of dreams, they dwell in the land of emotions +and weep over the bodies of unknown dead or sit under the eloquence of +evangelists, shouting of heaven and of hell--the call to the one being +brother to the call of the other--crying upon the troubled air of hot +little churches, where hope is fighting in the jaws of vulgarity, "The +weight of my sins is heavy on my soul." Along streets they go lifting +heavy eyes to peer into the lives of others and to get a morsel to roll +upon their heavy tongues. Having fallen upon a side light in the life +of a Mary Underwood they return to it again and again as a dog to its +offal. Something touching the lives of such as walk in the clean air, +dream dreams, and have the audacity to be beautiful beyond the beauty of +animal youth, maddens them, and they cry out, running from kitchen door +to kitchen door and tearing at the prize like a starved beast who has +found a carcass. Let but earnest women found a movement and crowd it +forward to the day when it smacks of success and gives promise of the +fine emotion of achievement, and they fall upon it with a cry, having +hysteria rather than reason as their guiding impulse. In them is all of +femininity--and none of it. For the most part they live and die unseen, +unknown, eating rank food, sleeping overmuch, and sitting through +summer afternoons rocking in chairs and looking at people passing in the +street. In the end they die full of faith, hoping for a life to come. + +Sam stood upon the road fearing the attacks these women were now making +on Mary Underwood. The moon coming up, threw its light on the fields +that lay beside the road and brought out their early spring nakedness +and he thought them dreary and hideous, like the faces of the women that +had been marching through his mind. He drew his overcoat about him and +shivered as he went on, the mud splashing him and the raw night air +aggravating the dreariness of his thoughts. He tried to revert to the +assurance of the days before his mother's illness and to get again the +strong belief in his own destiny that had kept him at the money making +and saving and had urged him to the efforts to rise above the level of +the man who bred him. He didn't succeed. The feeling of age that had +settled upon him in the midst of the people mourning over the body of +his mother came back, and, turning, he went along the road toward the +town, saying to himself: "I will go and talk to Mary Underwood." + +While he waited on the veranda for Mary to open the door, he decided +that after all a marriage with her might lead to happiness. The half +spiritual, half physical love of woman that is the glory and mystery of +youth was gone from him. He thought that if he could only drive from her +presence the fear of the faces that had been coming and going in his own +mind he would, for his own part, be content to live his life as a worker +and money maker, one without dreams. + +Mary Underwood came to the door wearing the same heavy long coat she had +worn on that other night and taking her by the hand Sam led her to the +edge of the veranda. He looked with content at the pine trees before +the house, thinking that some benign influence must have guided the hand +that planted them there to stand clothed and decent amid the barrenness +of the land at the end of winter. + +"What is it, boy?" asked the woman, and her voice was filled with +anxiety. The maternal passion again glowing in her had for days coloured +all her thoughts, and with all the ardour of an intense nature she had +thrown herself into her love of Sam. Thinking of him, she felt in fancy +the pangs of birth, and in her bed at night relived with him his boyhood +in the town and built again her plans for his future. In the day time +she laughed at herself and said tenderly, "You are an old fool." + +Brutally and frankly Sam told her of the thing he had heard on the +station platform, looking past her at the pine trees and gripping the +veranda rail. From the dead land there came again the smell of the new +growth as it had come to him on the road before the revelation at the +railroad station. + +"Something kept telling me not to go away," he said. "It must have been +in the air--this thing. Already these evil crawling things were at work. +Oh, if only all the world, like you and Telfer and some of the others +here, had an appreciation of the sense of privacy." + +Mary Underwood laughed quietly. + +"I was more than half right when, in the old days, I dreamed of making +you a man at work upon the things of the mind," she said. "The sense of +privacy indeed! What a fellow you have become! John Telfer's method was +better than my own. He has given you the knack of saying things with a +flourish." + +Sam shook his head. + +"Here is something that cannot be faced down with a laugh," he said +stoutly. "Here is something at you--it is tearing at you--it has got to +be met. Even now women are waking up in bed and turning the matter over +in their minds. To-morrow they will be at you again. There is but one +way and we must take it. You and I will have to marry." + +Mary looked at the serious new lines of his face. + +"What a proposal!" she cried. + +On an impulse she began singing, her voice fine and strong running +through the quiet night. + + "He rode and he thought of her red, red lips," + +she sang, and laughed again. + +"You should come like that," she said, and then, "you poor muddled boy. +Don't you know that I am your new mother?" she added, taking hold of +his two arms and turning him about facing her. "Don't be absurd. I don't +want a husband or a lover. I want a son of my own and I have found him. +I adopted you here in this house that night when you came to me sick +and covered with mud. As for these women--away with them--I'll face them +down--I did it once before and I'll do it again. Go to your city and +make your fight. Here in Caxton it is a woman's fight." + +"It is horrible. You don't understand," Sam protested. + +A grey, tired look came into Mary Underwood's face. + +"I understand," she said. "I have been on that battlefield. It is to be +won only by silence and tireless waiting. Your very effort to help would +make the matter worse." + +The woman and the tall boy, suddenly become a man, stood in thought. +She was thinking of the end toward which her life was drifting. +How differently she had planned it. She thought of the college in +Massachusetts and of the men and women walking under the elm trees +there. + +"But I have got me a son and I am going to keep him," she said aloud, +putting her hand on Sam's arm. + +Very serious and troubled, Sam went down the gravel path toward the +road. He felt there was something cowardly in the part she had given him +to play, but he could see no alternative. + +"After all," he reflected, "it is sensible--it is a woman's battle." + +Half way to the road he stopped and, running back, caught her in his +arms and gave her a great hug. + +"Good-bye, little Mother," he cried and kissed her upon the lips. + +And she, watching him as he went again down the gravel path, was +overcome with tenderness. She went to the back of the porch and leaning +against the house put her head upon her arm. Then turning and smiling +through her tears she called after him. + +"Did you crack their heads hard, boy?" she asked. + + * * * * * + +From Mary's house Sam went to his own. On the gravel path an idea had +come to him. He went into the house and, sitting down at the kitchen +table with pen and ink, began writing. In the sleeping room back of the +parlour he could hear Windy snoring. He wrote carefully, erasing and +writing again. Then, drawing up a chair before the kitchen fire, he read +over and over what he had written, and putting on his coat went through +the dawn to the house of Tom Comstock, editor of the _Caxton Argus_, and +roused him out of bed. + +"I'll run it on the front page, Sam, and it won't cost you anything," +Comstock promised. "But why run it? Let the matter drop." + +"I shall just have time to pack and get the morning train for Chicago," +Sam thought. + +Early the evening before, Telfer, Wildman, and Freedom Smith, at +Valmore's suggestion, had made a visit to Hunter's jewelry store. For an +hour they bargained, selected, rejected, and swore at the jeweller. When +the choice was made and the gift lay shining against white cotton in a +box on the counter Telfer made a speech. + +"I will talk straight to that boy," he declared, laughing. "I am not +going to spend my time training his mind for money making and then have +him fail me. I shall tell him that if he doesn't make money in that +Chicago I shall come and take the watch from him." + +Putting the gift into his pocket Telfer went out of the store and along +the street to Eleanor's shop. He strutted through the display room and +into the workshop where Eleanor sat with a hat on her knee. + +"What am I going to do, Eleanor?" he demanded, standing with legs spread +apart and frowning down upon her, "what am I going to do without Sam?" + +A freckle-faced boy opened the shop door and threw a newspaper on the +floor. The boy had a ringing voice and quick brown eyes. Telfer went +again through the display room, touching with his cane the posts upon +which hung the finished hats, and whistling. Standing before the shop, +with the cane hooked upon his arm, he rolled a cigarette and watched the +boy running from door to door along the street. + +"I shall have to be adopting a new son," he said musingly. + +After Sam left, Tom Comstock stood in his white nightgown and re-read +the statement just given him. He read it over and over, and then, laying +it on the kitchen table, filled and lighted a corncob pipe. A draft of +wind blew into the room under the kitchen door chilling his thin shanks +so that he drew his bare feet, one after the other, up behind the +protective walls of his nightgown. + +"On the night of my mother's death," ran the statement, "I sat in the +kitchen of our house eating my supper when my father came in and began +shouting and talking loudly, disturbing my mother who was asleep. I +put my hand at his throat and squeezed until I thought he was dead, and +carried him around the house and threw him into the road. Then I ran to +the house of Mary Underwood, who was once my schoolteacher, and told her +what I had done. She took me home, awoke John Telfer, and then went +to look for the body of my father, who was not dead after all. John +McPherson knows this is true, if he can be made to tell the truth." + +Tom Comstock shouted to his wife, a small nervous woman with red cheeks, +who set up type in the shop, did her own housework, and gathered most of +the news and advertising for _The Argus_. + +"Ain't that a slasher?" he asked, handing her the statement Sam had +written. + +"Well, it ought to stop the mean things they are saying about Mary +Underwood," she snapped. Then, taking the glasses from her nose, and +looking at Tom, who, while he did not find time to give her much help +with _The Argus_, was the best checker player in Caxton and had once +been to a state tournament of experts in that sport, she added, "Poor +Jane McPherson, to have had a son like Sam and no better father for him +than that liar Windy. Choked him, eh? Well, if the men of this town had +any spunk they would finish the job." + + + + +BOOK II + + +CHAPTER I + + +For two years Sam lived the life of a travelling buyer, visiting towns +in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and making deals with men who, like +Freedom Smith, bought the farmers' products. On Sundays he sat in chairs +before country hotels and walked in the streets of strange towns, or, +getting back to the city at the week end, went through the downtown +streets and among the crowds in the parks with young men he had met on +the road. From time to time he went to Caxton and sat for an hour with +the men in Wildman's, stealing away later for an evening with Mary +Underwood. + +In the store he heard news of Windy, who was laying close siege to the +farmer's widow he later married, and who seldom appeared in Caxton. In +the store he saw the boy with freckles on his nose--the same John Telfer +had watched running along Main Street on the night when he went to show +Eleanor the gold watch bought for Sam and who sat now on the cracker +barrel in the store and later went with Telfer to dodge the swinging +cane and listen to the eloquence poured out on the night air. Telfer +had not got the chance to stand with a crowd about him at the railroad +station and make a parting speech to Sam, and in secret he resented the +loss of that opportunity. After turning the matter over in his mind and +thinking of many fine flourishes and ringing periods to give colour +to the speech he had been compelled to send the gift by mail. And Sam, +while the gift had touched him deeply and had brought back to his mind +the essential solid goodness of the town amid the cornfields, so that he +lost much of the bitterness aroused by the attack upon Mary Underwood, +had been able to make but a tame and halting reply to the four. In his +room in Chicago he had spent an evening writing and rewriting, putting +in and taking out flourishes, and had ended by sending a brief line of +thanks. + +Valmore, whose affection for the boy had been a slow growth and who, now +that he was gone, missed him more than the others, once spoke to Freedom +Smith of the change that had come over young McPherson. Freedom sat in +the wide old phaeton in the road before Valmore's shop as the blacksmith +walked around the grey mare, lifting her feet and looking at the shoes. + +"What has happened to Sam--he has changed so much?" he asked, dropping +a foot of the mare and coming to lean upon the front wheel. "Already the +city has changed him," he added regretfully. + +Freedom took a match from his pocket and lighted the short black pipe. + +"He bites off his words," continued Valmore; "he sits for an hour in the +store and then goes away, and doesn't come back to say good-bye when he +leaves town. What has got into him?" + +Freedom gathered up the reins and spat over the dashboard into the dust +of the road. A dog idling in the street jumped as though a stone had +been hurled at him. + +"If you had something he wanted to buy you would find he talked all +right," he exploded. "He skins me out of my eyeteeth every time he comes +to town and then gives me a cigar wrapped in tinfoil to make me like +it." + + * * * * * + +For some months after his hurried departure from Caxton the changing, +hurrying life of the city profoundly interested the tall strong boy +from the Iowa village, who had the cold, quick business stroke of the +money-maker combined with an unusually active interest in the problems +of life and of living. Instinctively he looked upon business as a great +game in which many men sat, and in which the capable, quiet ones waited +patiently until a certain moment and then pounced upon what they would +possess. With the quickness and accuracy of a beast at the kill they +pounced and Sam felt that he had that stroke, and in his deals with +country buyers used it ruthlessly. He knew the vague, uncertain look +that came into the eyes of unsuccessful business men at critical moments +and watched for it and took advantage of it as a successful prize +fighter watches for a similar vague, uncertain look in the eyes of an +opponent. + +He had found his work, and had the assurance and the confidence that +comes with that discovery. The stroke that he saw in the hand of the +successful business men about him is the stroke also of the master +painter, scientist, actor, singer, prize fighter. It was the hand of +Whistler, Balzac, Agassiz, and Terry McGovern. The sense of it had been +in him when as a boy he watched the totals grow in the yellow bankbook, +and now and then he recognised it in Telfer talking on a country road. +In the city where men of wealth and power in affairs rubbed elbows with +him in the street cars and walked past him in hotel lobbies he watched +and waited saying to himself, "I also will be such a one." + +Sam had not lost the vision that had come to him when as a boy he walked +on the road and listened to the talk of Telfer, but he now thought of +himself as one who had not only a hunger for achievement but also a +knowledge of where to look for it. At times he had stirring dreams of +vast work to be done by his hand that made the blood race in him, but +for the most part he went his way quietly, making friends, looking about +him, keeping his mind busy with his own thoughts, making deals. + +During his first year in the city he lived in the house of an ex-Caxton +family named Pergrin that had been in Chicago for several years, but +that still continued to send its members, one at a time, to spend summer +vacations in the Iowa village. To these people he carried letters handed +him during the month after his mother's death, and letters regarding him +had come to them from Caxton. In the house, where eight people sat down +to dinner, only three besides himself were Caxton-bred, but thoughts and +talk of the town pervaded the house and crept into every conversation. + +"I was thinking of old John Moore to-day--does he still drive that +team of black ponies?" the housekeeping sister, a mild-looking woman +of thirty, would ask of Sam at the dinner table, breaking in on a +conversation of baseball, or a tale by one of the boarders of a new +office building to be erected in the Loop. + +"No, he don't," Jake Pergrin, a fat bachelor of forty who was foreman in +a machine shop and the man of the house, would answer. So long had Jake +been the final authority in the house on affairs touching Caxton that +he looked upon Sam as an intruder. "John told me last summer when I was +home that he intended to sell the blacks and buy mules," he would add, +looking at the youth challengingly. + +The Pergrin family was in fact upon foreign soil. Living amid the roar +and bustle of Chicago's vast west side, it still turned with hungry +heart toward the place of corn and of steers, and wished that work for +Jake, its mainstay, could be found in that paradise. + +Jake Pergrin, a bald-headed man with a paunch, stubby iron-grey +moustache, and a dark line of machine oil encircling his finger nails so +that they stood forth separately like formal flower beds at the edge of +a lawn, worked industriously from Monday morning until Saturday night, +going to bed at nine o'clock, and until that hour wandering, whistling, +from room to room through the house, in a pair of worn carpet slippers, +or sitting in his room practising on a violin. On Saturday evening, the +habits formed in his Caxton days being strong in him, he came home +with his pay in his pocket, settled with the two sisters for the +week's living, sat down to dinner neatly shaved and combed, and then +disappeared upon the troubled waters of the town. Late on Sunday evening +he re-appeared, with empty pockets, unsteady step, blood-shot eyes, and +a noisy attempt at self-possessed unconcern, to hurry upstairs and crawl +into bed in preparation for another week of toil and respectability. The +man had a certain Rabelaisian sense of humour and kept score of the new +ladies met on his weekly flights by pencil marks upon his bedroom wall. +He once took Sam upstairs to show his record. A row of them ran half +around the room. + +Besides the bachelor there was a sister, a tall gaunt woman of +thirty-five who taught school, and the housekeeper, thirty, mild, and +blessed with a remarkably sweet speaking voice. Then there was a medical +student in the front room, Sam in an alcove off the hall, a grey-haired +woman stenographer, whom Jake called Marie Antoinette, and a buyer +from a wholesale dry-goods house, with a vivacious, fun-loving little +Southern wife. + +The women in the Pergrin house seemed to Sam tremendously concerned +about their health and each evening talked of the matter, he thought, +more than his mother had talked during her illness. While Sam lived with +them they were all under the influence of a strange sort of faith healer +and took what they called "Health Suggestion" treatments. Twice each +week the faith healer came to the house, laid his hands upon their backs +and took their money. The treatment afforded Jake a never-ending source +of amusement and in the evening he went through the house putting his +hands upon the backs of the women and demanding money from them, but +the dry-goods buyer's wife, who for years had coughed at night, slept +peacefully after some weeks of the treatment and the cough did not +return while Sam remained in the house. + +In the house Sam had a standing. Glowing tales of his shrewdness in +business, his untiring industry, and the size of his bank account, had +preceded him from Caxton, and these tales the Pergrins, in their loyalty +to the town and to all the products of the town, did not allow to shrink +in the re-telling. The housekeeping sister, a kindly woman, became fond +of Sam, and in his absence would boast of him to chance callers or to +the boarders gathered in the living room in the evening. She it was who +laid the foundation of the medical student's belief that Sam was a kind +of genius in money matters, a belief that enabled him later to make a +successful assault upon a legacy which came to that young man. + +Frank Eckardt, the medical student, Sam took as a friend. On Sunday +afternoons they went to walk in the streets, or, taking two girl friends +of Frank's, who were also students at the medical school, on their arms, +they went to the park and sat upon benches under the trees. + +For one of these young women Sam conceived a regard that approached +tenderness. Sunday after Sunday he spent with her, and once, walking +through the park on an evening in the late fall, the dry brown leaves +rustling under their feet and the sun going down in red splendour before +their eyes, he took her hand and walked in silence, feeling tremendously +alive and vital as he had felt on that other night walking under the +trees of Caxton with the dark-skinned daughter of banker Walker. + +That nothing came of the affair and that after a time he did not see +the girl again was due, he thought, to his own growing interest in money +making and to the fact that there was in her, as in Frank Eckardt, a +blind devotion to something that he could not himself understand. + +Once he had a talk with Eckardt of the matter. "She is fine and +purposeful like a woman I knew in my home town," he said, thinking of +Eleanor Telfer, "but she will not talk to me of her work as sometimes +she talks to you. I want her to talk. There is something about her that +I do not understand and that I want to understand. I think that she +likes me and once or twice I have thought she would not greatly mind my +making love to her, but I do not understand her just the same." + +One day in the office of the company for which he worked Sam became +acquainted with a young advertising man named Jack Prince, a brisk, very +much alive young fellow who made money rapidly, spent it lavishly, and +had friends and acquaintances in every office, every hotel lobby, every +bar room and restaurant in the down-town section of the city. The chance +acquaintance rapidly grew into friendship. The clever, witty Prince made +a kind of hero of Sam, admiring his reserve and good sense and boasting +of him far and wide through the town. With Prince, Sam occasionally went +on mild carouses, and, once, in the midst of thousands of people sitting +about tables and drinking beer at the Coliseum on Wabash Avenue, he and +Prince got into a fight with two waiters, Prince declaring he had been +cheated and Sam, although he thought his friend in the wrong, striking +out with his fist and dragging Prince through the door and into a +passing street car in time to avoid a rush of other waiters hurrying to +the aid of the one who lay dazed and sputtering on the sawdust floor. + +After these evenings of carousal, carried on with Jack Prince and with +young men met on trains and about country hotels, Sam spent hour after +hour walking about town absorbed in his own thoughts and getting his own +impressions of what he saw. In the affairs with the young men he played, +for the most part, a passive rôle, going with them from place to place +and drinking until they became loud and boisterous, or morose and +quarrelsome, and then slipping away to his own room, amused or irritated +as the circumstances, or the temperament of his companions, had made +or marred the joviality of the evening. On his nights alone, he put his +hands into his pockets and walked for endless miles through the lighted +streets, getting in a dim way a realisation of the hugeness of life. All +of the faces going past him, the women in their furs, the young men +with cigars in their mouths going to the theatres, the bald old men with +watery eyes, the boys with bundles of newspapers under their arms, and +the slim prostitutes lurking in the hallways, should have interested him +deeply. In his youth, and with the pride of sleeping power in him, he +saw them only as so many individuals that might some day test their +ability against his own. And if he peered at them closely and marked +down face after face in the crowds it was as a sitter in the great game +of business that he looked, exercising his mind by imagining this or +that one arrayed against him in deals, and planning the method by which +he would win in the imaginary struggle. + +There was at that time in Chicago a place, to be reached by a bridge +above the Illinois Central Railroad track, that Sam sometimes visited +on stormy nights to watch the lake lashed by the wind. Great masses +of water moving swiftly and silently broke with a roar against wooden +piles, backed by hills of stone and earth, and the spray from the broken +waves fell upon Sam's face and on winter nights froze on his coat. He +had learned to smoke, and leaning upon the railing of the bridge would +stand for hours with a pipe in his mouth looking at the moving water, +filled with awe and admiration of the silent power of it. + +One night in September, when he was walking alone in the streets, an +incident happened that showed him also a silent power within himself, +a power that startled and for the moment frightened him. Walking into +a little street back of Dearborn, he was suddenly aware of the faces of +women looking out at him through small square windows cut in the fronts +of the houses. Here and there, before and behind him, were the faces; +voices called, smiles invited, hands beckoned. Up and down the street +went men looking at the sidewalk, their coats turned up about their +necks, their hats pulled down over their eyes. They looked at the faces +of the women pressed against the little squares of glass and then, +turning, suddenly, sprang in at the doors of the houses as if pursued. +Among the walkers on the sidewalk were old men, men in shabby coats +whose feet scuffled as they hurried along, and young boys with the pink +of virtue in their cheeks. In the air was lust, heavy and hideous. It +got into Sam's brain and he stood hesitating and uncertain, startled, +nerveless, afraid. He remembered a story he had once heard from John +Telfer, a story of the disease and death that lurks in the little side +streets of cities, and ran into Van Buren Street and from that into +lighted State. He climbed up the stairway of the elevated railroad and +jumping on the first train went away south to walk for hours on a gravel +roadway at the edge of the lake in Jackson Park. The wind from the lake +and the laughter and talk of people passing under the lights cooled +the fever in him, as once it had been cooled by the eloquence of John +Telfer, walking on the road near Caxton, and with his voice marshalling +the armies of the standing corn. + +Into Sam's mind came a picture of the cold, silent water moving in great +masses under the night sky and he thought that in the world of men there +was a force as resistless, as little understood, as little talked of, +moving always forward, silent, powerful--the force of sex. He wondered +how the force would be broken in his own case, against what breakwater +it would spend itself. At midnight, he went home across the city and +crept into his alcove in the Pergrin house, puzzled and for the time +utterly tired. In his bed, he turned his face to the wall and +resolutely closing his eyes tried to sleep. "There are things not to +be understood," he told himself. "To live decently is a matter of good +sense. I will keep thinking of what I want to do and not go into such a +place again." + +One day, when he had been in Chicago two years, there happened an +incident of another sort, an incident so grotesque, so Pan-like, so full +of youth, that for days after it happened he thought of it with delight, +and walked in the streets or sat in a passenger train laughing joyfully +at the remembrance of some new detail of the affair. + +Sam, who was the son of Windy McPherson and who had more than once +ruthlessly condemned all men who put liquor into their mouths, got +drunk, and for eighteen hours went shouting poetry, singing songs, and +yelling at the stars like a wood god on the bend. + +Late on an afternoon in the early spring he sat with Jack Prince in +DeJonge's restaurant in Monroe Street. Prince, his watch lying before +him on the table and the thin stem of a wine glass between his fingers, +talked to Sam of the man for whom they had been waiting a half hour. + +"He will be late, of course," he exclaimed, refilling Sam's glass. "The +man was never on time in his life. To keep an appointment promptly would +take something from him. It would be like the bloom of youth gone from +the cheeks of a maiden." + +Sam had already seen the man for whom they waited. He was thirty-five, +small and narrow-shouldered, with a little wrinkled face, a huge nose, +and a pair of eyeglasses that hooked over his ears. Sam had seen him in +a Michigan Avenue club with Prince solemnly pitching silver dollars at a +chalk mark on the floor with a group of serious, solid-looking old men. + +"They are the crowd that have just put through the big deal in Kansas +oil stock and the little one is Morris, who handled the publicity for +them," Prince had explained. + +Later, when they were walking down Michigan Avenue, Prince talked at +length of Morris, whom he admired immensely. "He is the best advertising +and publicity man in America," he declared. "He isn't a four-flusher, +as I am, and does not make as much money, but he can take another man's +ideas and express them so simply and forcibly that they tell the +man's story better than he knew it himself. And that's all there is to +advertising." + +He began laughing. + +"It is funny to think of it. Tom Morris will do a job of work and the +man for whom he does it will swear that he did it himself, that every +pat phrase on the printed page Tom has turned out, is one of his own. He +will howl like a beast at paying Tom's bill, and then the next time he +will try to do the job himself and make a hopeless muddle of it so +that he has to send for Tom only to see the trick done over again like +shelling corn off the cob. The best men in Chicago send for him." + +Into the restaurant came Tom Morris bearing under his arm a huge +pasteboard portfolio. He seemed hurried and nervous. "I am on my way +to the office of the International Biscuit Turning Machine Company," he +explained to Prince. "I can't stop at all. I have here the layout of +a circular designed to push on to the market some more of that common +stock of theirs that hasn't paid a dividend for ten years." + +Thrusting out his hand, Prince dragged Morris into a chair. "Never mind +the Biscuit Machine people and their stock," he commanded; "they will +always have common stock to sell. It is inexhaustible. I want you to +meet McPherson here who will some day have something big for you to help +him with." + +Morris reached across the table and took Sam's hand; his own was small +and soft like that of a woman. "I am worked to death," he complained; +"I have my eye on a chicken farm in Indiana. I am going down there to +live." + +For an hour the three men sat in the restaurant while Prince talked of +a place in Wisconsin where the fish should be biting. "A man has told me +of the place twenty times," he declared; "I am sure I could find it on +a railroad folder. I have never been fishing nor have you, and Sam here +comes from a place to which they carry water in wagons over the plains." + +The little man who had been drinking copiously of the wine looked from +Prince to Sam. From time to time he took off his glasses and wiped them +with a handkerchief. "I don't understand your being in such society," he +announced; "you have the solid, substantial look of a bucket-shop man. +Prince here will get nowhere. He is honest, sells wind and his charming +society, and spends the money that he gets, instead of marrying and +putting it in his wife's name." + +Prince arose. "It is useless to waste time in persiflage," he began +and then turning to Sam, "There is a place in Wisconsin," he said +uncertainly. + +Morris picked up the portfolio and with a grotesque effort at steadiness +started for the door followed by Prince and Sam walking with wavering +steps. In the street Prince took the portfolio out of the little man's +hand. "Let your mother carry it, Tommy," he said, shaking his finger +under Morris's nose. He began singing a lullaby. "When the bough bends +the cradle will fall." + +The three men walked out of Monroe and into State Street, Sam's head +feeling strangely light. The buildings along the street reeled against +the sky. A sudden fierce longing for wild adventure seized him. On a +corner Morris stopped, took the handkerchief from his pocket and again +wiped his glasses. "I want to be sure that I see clearly," he said; "it +seems to me that in the bottom of that last glass of wine I saw three +of us in a cab with a basket of life oil on the seat between us going +to the station to catch the train for that place Jack's friend told fish +lies about." + +The next eighteen hours opened up a new world to Sam. With the fumes of +liquor rising in his brain, he rode for two hours on a train, tramped +in the darkness along dusty roads and, building a bonfire in a woods, +danced in the light of it upon the grass, holding the hands of Prince +and the little man with the wrinkled face. Solemnly he stood upon a +stump at the edge of a wheatfield and recited Poe's "Helen," taking on +the voice, the gestures and even the habit of spreading his legs apart, +of John Telfer. And then overdoing the last, he sat down suddenly on the +stump, and Morris, coming forward with a bottle in his hand said, "Fill +the lamp, man--the light of reason has gone out." + +From the bonfire in the woods and Sam's recital from the stump, the +three friends emerged again upon the road, and a belated farmer driving +home half asleep on the seat of his wagon caught their attention. With +the skill of an Indian boy the diminutive Morris sprang upon the wagon +and thrust a ten dollar bill into the farmer's hand. "Lead us, O man of +the soil!" he shouted, "Lead us to a gilded palace of sin! Take us to a +saloon! The life oil gets low in the can!" + +Beyond the long, jolting ride in the wagon Sam never became quite clear. +In his mind ran vague notions of a wild carousal in a country tavern, of +himself acting as bartender, and a huge red-faced woman rushing here and +there under the direction of a tiny man, dragging reluctant rustics to +the bar and commanding them to keep on drinking the beer that Sam drew +until the last of the ten dollars given to the man of the wagon should +have gone into her cash drawer. Also, he thought that Jack Prince +had put a chair upon the bar and that he sat on it explaining to the +hurrying drawer of beer that although the Egyptian kings had built great +pyramids to celebrate themselves they never built anything more gigantic +than the jag Tom Morris was building among the farm hands in the room. + +Later Sam thought that he and Jack Prince tried to sleep under a pile of +grain sacks in a shed and that Morris came to them weeping because every +one in the world was asleep and most of them lying under tables. + +And then, his head clearing, Sam found himself with the two others +walking again upon the dusty road in the dawn and singing songs. + +On the train, with the help of a Negro porter, the three men tried +to efface the dust and the stains of the wild night. The pasteboard +portfolio containing the circular for the Biscuit Machine Company was +still under Jack Prince's arm and the little man, wiping and re-wiping +his glasses, peered at Sam. + +"Did you come with us or are you a child we have adopted here in these +parts?" he asked. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It was a wonderful place, that South Water Street in Chicago where Sam +came to make his business start in the city, and it was proof of the dry +unresponsiveness in him that he did not sense more fully its meaning and +its message. All day the food stuff of a vast city flowed through the +narrow streets. Blue-shirted, broad-shouldered teamsters from the tops +of high piled wagons bawled at scurrying pedestrians. On the sidewalks +in boxes, bags, and barrels, lay oranges from Florida and California, +figs from Arabia, bananas from Jamaica, nuts from the hills of Spain and +the plains of Africa, cabbages from Ohio, beans from Michigan, corn +and potatoes from Iowa. In December, fur-coated men hurried through the +forests of northern Michigan gathering Christmas trees that found +their way to warm firesides through the street. And summer and winter a +million hens laid the eggs that were gathered there, and the cattle on +a thousand hills sent their yellow butter fat packed in tubs and piled +upon trucks to add to the confusion. + +Into this street Sam walked, thinking little of the wonder of these +things and thinking haltingly, getting his sense of the bigness of it in +dollars and cents. Standing in the doorway of the commission house for +which he was to work, strong, well clad, able and efficient, he looked +through the streets, seeing and hearing the hurry and the roar and the +shouting of voices, and then with a smile upon his lips went inside. In +his brain was an unexpressed thought. As the old Norse marauders looked +at the cities sitting in their splendour on the Mediterranean so looked +he. "What loot!" a voice within him said, and his brain began devising +methods by which he should get his share of it. + +Years later, when Sam was a man of big affairs, he drove one day in +a carriage through the streets and turning to his companion, a +grey-haired, dignified Boston man who sat beside him, said, "I worked +here once and used to sit on a barrel of apples at the edge of the +sidewalk thinking how clever I was to make more money in one month than +the man who raised the apples made in a year." + +The Boston man, stirred by the sight of so much foodstuff and moved to +epigram by his mood, looked up and down the street. + +"The foodstuff of an empire rattling o'er the stones," he said. + +"I should have made more money here," answered Sam dryly. + +The commission firm for which Sam worked was a partnership, not a +corporation, and was owned by two brothers. Of the two Sam thought that +the elder, a tall, bald, narrow-shouldered man, with a long narrow face +and a suave manner, was the real master, and represented most of the +ability in the partnership. He was oily, silent, tireless. All day he +went in and out of the office and warehouses and up and down the crowded +street, sucking nervously at an unlighted cigar. He was a great worker +in a suburban church, but a shrewd and, Sam suspected, an unscrupulous +business man. Occasionally the minister or some of the women of the +suburban church came into the office to talk with him, and Sam was +amused at the thought that Narrow Face, when he talked of the affairs of +the church, bore a striking resemblance to the brown-bearded minister of +the church in Caxton. + +The other brother was a far different sort, and, in business, Sam +thought, a much inferior man. He was a heavy, broad-shouldered, +square-faced man of about thirty, who sat in the office dictating +letters and who stayed out two or three hours to lunch. He sent out +letters signed by him on the firm's stationery with the title of +General Manager, and Narrow Face let him do it. Broad Shoulders had +been educated in New England and even after several years away from +his college seemed more interested in it than in the welfare of the +business. For a month or more in the spring he took most of the time +of one of the two stenographers employed by the firm writing letters to +graduates of Chicago high schools to induce them to go East to finish +their education; and when a graduate of the college came to Chicago +seeking employment, he closed his desk and spent entire days going from +place to place, introducing, urging, recommending. Sam noticed, however, +that when the firm employed a new man in their own office or on the road +it was Narrow-Face who chose the man. + +Broad-shoulders had been a famous football player in his day and wore +an iron brace on his leg. The offices, like most of the offices on the +street, were dark and narrow, and smelled of decaying vegetables +and rancid butter. Noisy Greek and Italian hucksters wrangled on the +sidewalk in front, and among these went Narrow-Face hurrying about +making deals. + +In South Water Street Sam did well, multiplying his thirty-six hundred +dollars by ten during the three years that he stayed there, or went out +from there to towns and cities directing a part of the great flowing +river of foodstuff through his firm's front door. + +With almost his first day on the street he began seeing on all sides of +him opportunity for gain, and set himself industriously at work to get +his hand upon money with which to take advantage of the chances that +he thought lay so invitingly about. Within a year he had made much +progress. From a woman on Wabash Avenue he got six thousand dollars, and +he planned and executed a coup that gave him the use of twenty thousand +dollars that had come as a legacy to his friend, the medical student, +who lived at the Pergrin house. + +Sam had eggs and apples lying in warehouse against a rise; game, +smuggled across the state line from Michigan and Wisconsin, lay frozen +in cold storage tagged with his name and ready to be sold at a long +profit to hotels and fashionable restaurants; and there were even secret +bushels of corn and wheat lying in other warehouses along the Chicago +River ready to be thrown on the market at a word from him, or, the +margins by which he kept his hold on the stuff not being forthcoming, at +a word from a LaSalle Street broker. + +Getting the twenty thousand dollars out of the hands of the medical +student was a turning point in Sam's life. Sunday after Sunday he walked +with Eckardt in the streets or loitered with him in the parks thinking +of the money lying idle in the bank and of the deals he might be turning +with it in the street or on the road. Daily he saw more clearly the +power of cash. Other commission merchants along South Water Street came +running into the office of his firm with tense, anxious faces asking +Narrow-Face to help them over rough spots in the day's trading. +Broad-Shoulders, who had no business ability but who had married a rich +woman, went on month after month taking half the profits brought in by +the ability of his tall, shrewd brother, and Narrow-Face, who had taken +a liking for Sam and who occasionally stopped for a word with him, spoke +of the matter often and eloquently. + +"Spend your time with no one who hasn't money to help you," he said; "on +the road look for the men with money and then try to get it. That's all +there is to business--money-getting." And then looking across to the +desk of his brother he would add, "I would kick half the men in business +out of it if I could, but I myself must dance to the tune that money +plays." + +One day Sam went to the office of an attorney named Webster, whose +reputation for the shrewd drawing of contracts had come to him from +Narrow-Face. + +"I want a contract drawn that will give me absolute control of twenty +thousand dollars with no risk on my part if I lose the money and no +promise to pay more than seven per cent if I do not lose," he said. + +The attorney, a slender, middle-aged man with a swarthy skin and black +hair, put his hands on the desk before him and looked at the tall young +man. + +"What collateral?" he asked. + +Sam shook his head. "Can you draw such a contract that will be legal and +what will it cost me?" he asked. + +The lawyer laughed good naturedly. "I can draw it of course. Why not?" + +Sam, taking a roll of bills from his pocket, counted the amount upon the +table. + +"Who are you anyway?" asked Webster. "If you can get twenty thousand and +without collateral you're worth knowing. I might be getting up a gang to +rob a mail train." + +Sam did not answer. He put the contract in his pocket and went home to +his alcove at the Pergrins. He wanted to get by himself and think. He +did not believe that he would by any chance lose Frank Eckardt's money, +but he knew that Eckardt himself would draw back from the kind of deals +that he expected to make with the money, that they would frighten and +alarm him, and he wondered if he was being honest. + +In his own room after dinner Sam studied carefully the agreement drawn +by Webster. It seemed to him to cover what he wanted covered, and +having got it well fixed in his mind he tore it up. "There is no use his +knowing I have been to a lawyer," he thought guiltily. + +Getting into bed, he began building plans for the future. With more than +thirty thousand dollars at his command he thought that he should be able +to make headway rapidly. "In my hands it will double itself every year," +he told himself and getting out of bed he drew a chair to the window and +sat down, feeling strangely alive and awake like a young man in love. He +saw himself going on and on, directing, managing, ruling men. It seemed +to him that there was nothing he could not do. "I will run factories +and banks and maybe mines and railroads," he thought and his mind leaped +forward so that he saw himself, grey, stern, and capable, sitting at +a broad desk high in a great stone building, a materialisation of John +Telfer's word picture--"You will be a big man of dollars--it is plain." + +And then into Sam's mind came another picture. He remembered a Saturday +afternoon when a young man had come running into the office on South +Water Street, a young man who owed Narrow-Face a sum of money and could +not pay it. He remembered the unpleasant tightening of the mouth and the +sudden shrewd hard look in his employer's long narrow face. He had not +heard much of the talk, but he was aware of a strained pleading quality +in the voice of the young man who had said over and over slowly and +painfully, "But, man, my honour is at stake," and of a coldness in the +answering voice replying persistently, "With me it is not a matter of +honour but of dollars, and I am going to get them." + +From the alcove window Sam looked out upon a vacant lot covered +with patches of melting snow. Beyond the lot facing him stood a flat +building, and the snow, melting on the roof, made a little stream that +ran down some hidden pipe and rattled out upon the ground. The noise +of the falling water and the sound of distant footsteps going homeward +through the sleeping city brought back thoughts of other nights when as +a boy in Caxton he had sat thus, thinking disconnected thoughts. + +Without knowing it Sam was fighting one of the real battles of his life, +a battle in which the odds were very much against the quality in him +that got him out of bed to look at the snow-clad vacant lot. + +There was in the youth much of the brute trader, blindly intent +upon gain; much of the quality that has given America so many of its +so-called great men. It was the quality that had sent him in secret +to Lawyer Webster to protect himself without protecting the simple +credulous young medical student, and that had made him say as he came +home with the contract in his pocket, "I will do what I can," when in +truth he meant, "I will get what I can." + +There may be business men in America who do not get what they can, who +simply love power. One sees men here and there in banks, at the heads of +great industrial trusts, in factories and in great mercantile houses of +whom one would like to think thus. They are the men who one dreams have +had an awakening, who have found themselves; they are the men hopeful +thinkers try to recall again and again to the mind. + +To these men America is looking. It is asking them to keep the faith, +to stand themselves up against the force of the brute trader, the dollar +man, the man who with his one cunning wolf quality of acquisitiveness +has too long ruled the business of the nation. + +I have said that the sense of equity in Sam fought an unequal battle. +He was in business, and young in business, in a day when all America was +seized with a blind grappling for gain. The nation was drunk with it, +trusts were being formed, mines opened; from the ground spurted oil and +gas; railroads creeping westward opened yearly vast empires of new land. +To be poor was to be a fool; thought waited, art waited; and men at +their firesides gathered their children around them and talked glowingly +of men of dollars, holding them up as prophets fit to lead the youth of +the young nation. + +Sam had in him the making of the new, the commanding man of business. It +was that quality in him that made him sit by the window thinking before +going to the medical student with the unfair contract, and the same +quality had sent him forth night after night to walk alone in the +streets when other young men went to theatres or to walk with girls in +the park. He had, in truth, a taste for the lonely hours when thought +grows. He was a step beyond the youth who hurries to the theatre or +buries himself in stories of love or adventure. He had in him something +that wanted a chance. + +In the flat building across the vacant lot a light appeared at a window +and through the lighted window he saw a man clad in pajamas who propped +a sheet of music against a dressing-table and who had a shining silver +horn in his hand. Sam watched, filled with mild curiosity. The man, +not reckoning on an onlooker at so late an hour, began an elaborate and +amusing schedule of personation. He opened the window, put the horn to +his lips and then turning bowed before the lighted room as before an +audience. He put his hand to his lips and blew kisses about, then put +the horn to his lips and looked again at the sheet of music. + +The note that came out of the window on the still air was a failure, +it flattened into a squawk. Sam laughed and pulled down the window. The +incident had brought back to his mind another man who bowed to a crowd +and blew upon a horn. Getting into bed he pulled the covers about him +and went to sleep. "I will get Frank's money if I can," he told himself, +settling the matter that had been in his mind. "Most men are fools and +if I do not get his money some other man will." + +On the next afternoon Eckardt had lunch down town with Sam. Together +they went to a bank where Sam showed the profits of deals he had made +and the growth of his bank account, going afterward into South Water +Street where Sam talked glowingly of the money to be made by a shrewd +man who knew the ways of the street and had a head upon his shoulders. + +"That's just it," said Frank Eckardt, falling quickly into the trap +Sam had set, and hungering for profits; "I have money but no head on my +shoulders for using it. I wish you would take it and see what you can +do." + +With a thumping heart Sam went home across the city to the Pergrin +house, Eckardt beside him in the elevated train. In Sam's room the +agreement was written out by Sam and signed by Eckardt. At dinner time +they had the drygoods buyer in to sign as witness. + +And the agreement turned out to Eckardt's advantage. In no year did +Sam return him less than ten per cent, and in the end gave back the +principal more than doubled so that Eckardt was able to retire from +the practice of medicine and live upon the interest of his capital in a +village near Tiffin, Ohio. + +With the thirty thousand dollars in his hands Sam began to reach out +and extend the scope of his ventures. He bought and sold constantly, not +only eggs, butter, apples, and grain, but also houses and building lots. +Through his head marched long rows of figures. Deals worked themselves +out in detail in his brain as he went about town drinking with young +men, or sat at dinner in the Pergrin house. He even began working over +in his head various schemes for getting into the firm by which he was +employed, and thought that he might work upon Broad-Shoulders, getting +hold of his interest and forcing himself into control. And then, the +fear of Narrow-Face holding him back and his growing success in deals +keeping his mind occupied, he was suddenly confronted by an opportunity +that changed entirely the plans he was making for himself. + +Through Jack Prince's suggestion Colonel Tom Rainey of the great Rainey +Arms Company sent for him and offered him a position as buyer of all the +materials used in their factories. + +It was the kind of connection Sam had unconsciously been seeking--a +company, strong, old, conservative, known throughout the world. There +was, in the talk with Colonel Tom, a hint of future opportunities to get +stock in the company and perhaps to become eventually an official--these +things were of course remote--to be dreamed of and worked toward--the +company made it a part of its policy. + +Sam said nothing, but already he had decided to accept the place, and +was thinking of a profitable arrangement touching percentages on the +amount saved in buying that had worked out so well for him during his +years with Freedom Smith. + +Sam's work for the firearms company took him off the road and confined +him to an office all day long. In a way he regretted this. The +complaints he had heard among travelling men in country hotels with +regard to the hardship of travel meant nothing to his mind. Any kind of +travel was a keen pleasure to him. Against the hardships and discomforts +he balanced the tremendous advantages of seeing new places and faces +and getting a look into many lives, and he looked back with a kind of +retrospective joy on the three years of hurrying from place to place, +catching trains, and talking with chance acquaintances met by the way. +Also, the years on the road had given him many opportunities for secret +and profitable deals of his own. + +Over against these advantages the place at Rainey's threw him into close +and continuous association with men of big affairs. The offices of the +Arms Company occupied an entire floor of one of Chicago's newest and +biggest skyscrapers and millionaire stockholders and men high in the +service of the state and of the government at Washington came in and +went out at the door. Sam looked at them closely. He wanted to have a +tilt with them and try if his Caxton and South Water Street shrewdness +would keep the head upon his shoulders in LaSalle Street. The +opportunity seemed to him a big one and he went about his work quietly +and ably, intent upon making the most of it. + +The Rainey Arms Company, at the time of Sam's coming with it, was still +largely owned by the Rainey family, father and daughter. Colonel Rainey, +a grey-whiskered military looking man with a paunch, was the president +and largest individual stockholder. He was a pompous, swaggering old +fellow with a habit of making the most trivial statement with the air +of a judge pronouncing the death sentence, and sat dutifully at his desk +day after day looking very important and thoughtful, smoking long black +cigars and signing personally piles of letters brought him by the heads +of various departments. He looked upon himself as a silent but very +important spoke in the government at Washington and every day issued +many orders which the men at the heads of departments received with +respect and disregarded in secret. Twice he had been prominently +mentioned in connection with cabinet positions in the national +government, and in talks with his cronies at clubs and restaurants he +gave the impression of having actually refused an offer of appointment +on both occasions. + +Having got himself established as a factor in the management of the +business, Sam found many things that surprised him. In every company of +which he knew there was some one man to whom all looked for guidance, +who at critical moments became dominant, saying "Do this, or that," and +making no explanations. In the Rainey Company he found no such man, but, +instead, a dozen strong departments, each with its own head and each +more or less independent of the others. + +Sam lay in his bed at night and went about in the evening thinking of +this and of its meaning. Among the department heads there was a great +deal of loyalty and devotion to Colonel Tom, and he thought that among +them were a few men who were devoted to other interests than their own. + +At the same time he told himself there was something wrong. He himself +had no such feeling of loyalty and although he was willing to give +lip service to the resounding talk of the colonel about the fine old +traditions of the company, he could not bring himself to a belief in the +idea of conducting a vast business on a system founded upon lip service +to traditions, or upon loyalty to an individual. + +"There must be loose ends lying about everywhere," he thought and +followed the thought with another. "A man will come along, pick up these +loose ends, and run the whole shop. Why not I?" + +The Rainey Arms Company had made its millions for the Rainey and +Whittaker families during the Civil War. Whittaker had been an inventor, +making one of the first practical breech-loading guns, and the original +Rainey had been a dry-goods merchant in an Illinois town who backed the +inventor. + +It proved itself a rare combination. Whittaker developed into a +wonderful shop manager for his day, and, from the first, stayed at home +building rifles and making improvements, enlarging the plant, getting +out the goods. The drygoods merchant scurried about the country, going +to Washington and to the capitals of the individual states, pulling +wires, appealing to patriotism and state pride, taking big orders at fat +prices. + +In Chicago there is a tradition that more than once he went south of the +Dixie line and that following these trips thousands of Rainey-Whittaker +rifles found their way into the hands of Confederate soldiers, but this +story which increased Sam's respect for the energetic little drygoods +merchant, Colonel Tom, his son, indignantly denied. In reality Colonel +Tom would have liked to think of the first Rainey as a huge, Jove-like +god of arms. Like Windy McPherson of Caxton, given a chance, he would +have invented a new ancestor. + +After the Civil War, and Colonel Tom's growing to manhood, the Rainey +and Whittaker fortunes were merged into one through the marriage of Jane +Whittaker, the last of her line, to the only surviving Rainey, and upon +her death her fortune, grown to more than a million, stood in the name +of Sue Rainey, twenty-six, the only issue of the marriage. + +From the first day, Sam began to forge ahead in the Rainey Company. In +the buying end he found a rich field for spectacular money saving and +money making and made the most of it. The position as buyer had for +ten years been occupied by a distant cousin to Colonel Tom, now dead. +Whether the cousin was a fool or a knave Sam could never quite decide +and did not greatly care, but after he had got the situation in hand +he felt that the man must have cost the company a tremendous sum, which +_he_ intended to save. + +Sam's arrangement with the company gave him, besides a fair salary, half +he saved in the fixed prices of standard materials. These prices had +stood fixed for years and Sam went into them, cutting right and left, +and making for himself during his first year twenty-three thousand +dollars. At the end of the year, when the directors asked to have an +adjustment made and the percentage contract annulled, he got a generous +slice of company stock, the respect of Colonel Tom Rainey and the +directors, the fear of some of the department heads, the loyal devotion +of others, and the title of Treasurer of the company. + +The Rainey Arms Company was in truth living largely upon the reputation +built up for it by the first pushing energetic Rainey, and the inventive +genius of his partner, Whittaker. Under Colonel Tom it had found +new conditions and new competition which he had ignored, or met in a +half-hearted way, standing on its reputation, its financial strength, +and on the glory of its past achievements. Dry rot ate at its heart. +The damage done was not great, but was growing greater. The heads of the +departments, in whose hands so much of the running of the business lay, +were many of them incompetent men with nothing to commend them but long +years of service. And in the treasurer's office sat a quiet young man, +barely turned twenty, who had no friends, wanted his own way, and who +shook his head over the office traditions and was proud of his unbelief. + +Seeing the absolute necessity of working through Colonel Tom, and having +a head filled with ideas of things he wanted done, Sam began working +to get suggestions into the older man's mind. Within a month after his +elevation the two men were lunching together daily and Sam was spending +many extra hours behind closed doors in Colonel Tom's office. + +Although American business and manufacturing had not yet achieved the +modern idea of efficiency in shop and office management, Sam had many of +these ideas in his mind and expounded them tirelessly to Colonel Tom. He +hated waste; he cared nothing for company tradition; he had no idea, as +did the heads of other departments, of getting into a comfortable berth +and spending the rest of his days there, and he was bent on managing the +great Rainey Company, if not directly, then through Colonel Tom, who, he +felt, was putty in his hands. + +From his new position as treasurer Sam did not drop his work as buyer, +but, after a talk with Colonel Tom, merged the two departments, put in +capable assistants of his own, and went on with his work of effacing +the tracks of the cousin. For years the company had been overpaying for +inferior material. Sam put his own material inspectors into the west +side factories and brought several big Pennsylvania steel companies +scurrying to Chicago to make restitution. The restitution was stiff, but +when Colonel Tom was appealed to, Sam went to lunch with him, bought a +bottle of wine, and stiffened his back. + +One afternoon in a room in the Palmer House a scene was played out that +for days stayed in Sam's mind as a kind of realisation of the part he +wanted to play in the business world. The president of a lumber company +took Sam into the room, and, laying five one thousand dollar bills upon +a table, walked to the window and stood looking out. + +For a moment Sam stood looking at the money on the table and at the +back of the man by the window, burning with indignation. He felt that +he should like to take hold of the man's throat and press as he had once +pressed on the throat of Windy McPherson. And then a cold gleam coming +into his eyes he cleared his throat and said, "You are short here; you +will have to build this pile higher if you expect to interest me." + +The man by the window shrugged his shoulders--he was a slender, +young-looking man in a fancy waistcoat--and then turning and taking a +roll of bills from his pocket he walked to the table, facing Sam. + +"I shall expect you to be reasonable," he said, as he laid the bills on +the table. + +When the pile had reached twenty thousand, Sam reached out his hand and +taking it up put it in his pocket. "You will get a receipt for this +when I get back to the office," he said; "it is about what you owe our +company for overcharges and crooked material. As for our business, I +made a contract with another company this morning." + +Having got the buying end of the Rainey Arms Company straightened out +to his liking, Sam began spending much time in the shops and, through +Colonel Tom, forced big changes everywhere. He discharged useless +foremen, knocked out partitions between rooms, pushed everywhere for +more and better work. Like the modern efficiency man, he went about with +a watch in his hand, cutting out lost motion, rearranging, getting his +own way. + +It was a time of great agitation. The offices and shops buzzed like bees +disturbed and black looks followed him about. But Colonel Tom rose to +the situation and went about at Sam's heels, swaggering, giving orders, +throwing back his shoulders like a man remade. All day long he was at +it, discharging, directing, roaring against waste. When a strike broke +out in one of the shops because of innovations Sam had forced upon the +workmen there, he got upon a bench and delivered a speech--written by +Sam--on a man's place in the organisation and conducting of a great +modern industry and his duty to perfect himself as a workman. + +Silently, the men picked up their tools and started again for their +benches and when he saw them thus affected by his words Colonel Tom +brought what threatened to be a squally affair to a hurrahing climax by +the announcement of a five per cent increase in the wage scale--that was +Colonel Tom's own touch and the rousing reception of it brought a glow +of pride to his cheeks. + +Although the affairs of the company were still being handled by Colonel +Tom, and though he daily more and more asserted himself, the officers +and shops, and later the big jobbers and buyers as well as the rich +LaSalle Street directors, knew that a new force had come into the +company. Men began dropping quietly into Sam's office, asking questions, +suggesting, seeking favours. He felt that he was getting hold. Of the +department heads, about half fought him and were secretly marked for +slaughter; the others came to him, expressed approval of what was going +on and asked him to look over their departments and to make suggestions +for improvements through them. This Sam did eagerly, getting by it their +loyalty and support which later stood him in good stead. + +In choosing the new men that came into the company Sam also took a hand. +The method used was characteristic of his relations with Colonel Tom. If +a man applying for a place suited him, he got admission to the colonel's +office and listened for half an hour to a talk anent the fine old +traditions of the company. If a man did not suit Sam, he did not get to +the colonel. "You can't have your time taken up by them," Sam explained. + +In the Rainey Company, the various heads of departments were +stockholders in the company, and selected from among themselves two men +to sit upon the board, and in his second year Sam was chosen as one of +these employee directors. During the same year five heads of departments +resigning in a moment of indignation over one of Sam's innovations--to +be replaced later by two--their stock by a prearranged agreement came +back into the company's hands. This stock and another block, secured for +him by the colonel, got into Sam's hands through the use of Eckardt's +money, that of the Wabash Avenue woman, and his own snug pile. + +Sam was a growing force in the company. He sat on the board of +directors, the recognised practical head of the business among its +stockholders and employees; he had stopped the company's march toward a +second place in its industry and had faced it about. All about him, in +offices and shops, there was the swing and go of new life and he felt +that he was in a position to move on toward real control and had begun +laying lines with that end in view. Standing in the offices in LaSalle +Street or amid the clang and roar of the shops he tilted up his chin +with the same odd little gesture that had attracted the men of Caxton +to him when he was a barefoot newsboy and the son of the town drunkard. +Through his head went big ambitious projects. "I have in my hand a great +tool," he thought; "with it I will pry my way into the place I mean to +occupy among the big men of this city and this nation." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Sam McPherson, who stood in the shops among the thousands of employees +of the Rainey Arms Company, who looked with unseeing eyes at the faces +of the men intent upon the operation of machines and saw in them but so +many aids to the ambitious projects stirring in his brain, who, while +yet a boy, had because of the quality of daring in him, combined with a +gift of acquisitiveness, become a master, who was untrained, uneducated, +knowing nothing of the history of industry or of social effort, walked +out of the offices of his company and along through the crowded streets +to the new apartment he had taken on Michigan Avenue. It was Saturday +evening at the end of a busy week and as he walked he thought of things +he had accomplished during the week and made plans for the one to come. +Through Madison Street he went and into State, seeing the crowds of men +and women, boys and girls, clambering aboard the cable cars, massed upon +the pavements, forming in groups, the groups breaking and reforming, and +the whole making a picture intense, confusing, awe-inspiring. As in +the shops among the men workers, so here, also, walked the youth with +unseeing eyes. He liked it all; the mass of people; the clerks in their +cheap clothing; the old men with young girls on their arms going to dine +in restaurants; the young man with a wistful look in his eyes waiting +for his sweetheart in the shadow of the towering office building. The +eager, straining rush of the whole, seemed no more to him than a kind of +gigantic setting for action; action controlled by a few quiet, capable +men--of whom he intended to be one--intent upon growth. + +In State Street he stopped at a shop and buying a bunch of roses came +out again upon the crowded street. In the crowd before him walked a +woman--tall, freewalking, with a great mass of reddish-brown hair on +her head. As she passed through the crowd men stopped and looked back at +her, their eyes ablaze with admiration. Seeing her, Sam sprang forward +with a cry. + +"Edith!" he called, and running forward thrust the roses into her hand. +"For Janet," he said, and lifting his hat walked beside her along State +to Van Buren Street. + +Leaving the woman at a corner Sam came into a region of cheap theatres +and dingy hotels. Women spoke to him; young men in flashy overcoats and +with a peculiar, assertive, animal swing to their shoulders loitered +before the theatres or in the doorways of the hotels; from an upstairs +restaurant came the voice of another young man singing a popular song of +the street. "There'll be a hot time in the old town to-night," sang the +voice. + +Over a cross street Sam went into Michigan Avenue, faced by a long +narrow park and beyond the railroad tracks by the piles of new earth +where the city was trying to regain its lake front. In the cross +street, standing in the shadow of the elevated railroad, he had passed +a whining, intoxicated old woman who lurched forward and put a hand +upon his coat. Sam had flung her a quarter and passed on shrugging his +shoulders. Here also he had walked with unseeing eyes; this too was +a part of the gigantic machine with which the quiet, competent men of +growth worked. + +From his new quarters in the top floor of the hotel facing the lake, Sam +walked north along Michigan Avenue to a restaurant where Negro men went +noiselessly about among white-clad tables, serving men and women who +talked and laughed under the shaded lamps had an assured, confident air. +Passing in at the door of the restaurant, a wind, blowing over the +city toward the lake, brought the sound of a voice floating with it. +"There'll be a hot time in the old town to-night," again insisted the +voice. + +After dining Sam got on a grip car of the Wabash Avenue Cable, sitting +on the front seat and letting the panorama of the town roll up to him. +From the region of cheap theatres he passed through streets in which +saloons stood massed, one beside another, each with its wide garish +doorway and its dimly lighted "Ladies' Entrance," and into a region of +neat little stores where women with baskets upon their arms stood by the +counters and Sam was reminded of Saturday nights in Caxton. + +The two women, Edith and Janet Eberly, met through Jack Prince, to one +of whom Sam had sent the roses at the hands of the other, and from whom +he had borrowed the six thousand dollars when he was new in the city, +had been in Chicago for five years when Sam came to know them. For all +of the five years they had lived in a two-story frame building that had +been a residence in Wabash Avenue near Thirty-ninth Street and that +was now both a residence and a grocery store. The apartment upstairs, +reached by a stairway at the side of the grocery, had in the five years, +and under the hand of Janet Eberly, become a thing of beauty, perfect in +the simplicity and completeness of its appointment. + +The two women were the daughters of a farmer who had lived in one of the +middle western states facing the Mississippi River. Their grandfather +had been a noted man in the state, having been one of its first +governors and later serving it in the senate in Washington. There was a +county and a good-sized town named for him and he had once been talked +of as a vice-presidential possibility but had died at Washington before +the convention at which his name was to have been put forward. His one +son, a youth of great promise, went to West Point and served brilliantly +through the Civil War, afterward commanding several western army posts +and marrying the daughter of another army man. His wife, an army belle, +died after having borne him the two daughters. + +After the death of his wife Major Eberly began drinking, and to get away +from the habit and from the army atmosphere where he had lived with his +wife, whom he loved intensely, took the two little girls and returned to +his home state to settle on a farm. + +About the county where the two girls grew to womanhood, their father, +Major Eberly, got the name of a character, seeing people but seldom and +treating rudely the friendly advances of his farmer neighbours. He would +sit in the house for days poring over books, of which he had a great +many, and hundreds of which were now on open shelves in the apartment +of the two girls. These days of study, during which he would brook no +intrusion, were followed by days of fierce industry during which he led +team after team to the field, ploughing or reaping day and night with no +rest except to eat. + +At the edge of the Eberly farm there was a little wooden country church +surrounded by a hay field, and on Sunday mornings during the summer the +ex-army man was always to be found in the field, running some noisy, +clattering agricultural implement up and down under the windows of the +church and disturbing the worship of the country folk; in the winter he +drew a pile of logs there and went on Sunday mornings to split firewood +under the church windows. While his daughters were small he was several +times haled into court and fined for cruel neglect of his animals. Once +he locked a great herd of fine sheep in a shed and went into the house +and stayed for days intent upon his books so that many of them suffered +cruelly for want of food and water. When he was taken into court +and fined, half the county came to the trial and gloated over his +humiliation. + +To the two girls the father was neither cruel nor kind, leaving them +largely to themselves but giving them no money, so that they went about +in dresses made over from those of the mother, that lay piled in trunks +in the attic. When they were small, an old Negro woman, an ex-servant of +the army belle, lived with and mothered them, but when Edith was a girl +of ten this woman went off home to Tennessee, so that the girls were +thrown on their own resources and ran the house in their own way. + +Janet Eberly was, at the beginning of her friendship with Sam, a slight +woman of twenty-seven with a small expressive face, quick nervous +fingers, black piercing eyes, black hair and a way of becoming so +absorbed in the exposition of a book or the rush of a conversation +that her little intense face became transfigured and her quick fingers +clutched the arm of her listener while her eyes looked into his and she +lost all consciousness of his presence or of the opinions he may have +expressed. She was a cripple, having fallen from the loft of a barn in +her youth injuring her back so that she sat all day in a specially made +reclining wheeled chair. + +Edith was a stenographer, working in the office of a publisher down +town, and Janet trimmed hats for a milliner a few doors down the street +from the house in which they lived. In his will the father left the +money from the sale of the farm to Janet, and Sam used it, insuring his +life for ten thousand dollars in her name while it was in his possession +and handling it with a caution entirely absent from his operations with +the money of the medical student. "Take it and make money for me," +the little woman had said impulsively one evening shortly after the +beginning of their acquaintance and after Jack Prince had been talking +flamboyantly of Sam's ability in affairs. "What is the good of having a +talent if you do not use it to benefit those who haven't it?" + +Janet Eberly was an intellect. She disregarded all the usual womanly +points of view and had an attitude of her own toward life and people. In +a way she had understood her hard-driven, grey-haired father and during +the time of her great physical suffering they had built up a kind of +understanding and affection for each other. After his death she wore a +miniature of him, made in his boyhood, on a chain about her neck. When +Sam met her the two immediately became close friends, sitting for hours +in talk and coming to look forward with great pleasure to the evenings +spent together. + +In the Eberly household Sam McPherson was a benefactor, a wonder-worker. +In his hands the six thousand dollars was bringing two thousand a year +into the house and adding immeasurably to the air of comfort and good +living that prevailed there. To Janet, who managed the house, he was +guide, counsellor, and something more than friend. + +Of the two women it was the strong, vigorous Edith, with the +reddish-brown hair and the air of physical completeness that made men +stop to look at her on the street, who first became Sam's friend. + +Edith Eberly was strong of body, given to quick flashes of anger, stupid +intellectually and hungry to the roots of her for wealth and a place in +the world. She had heard, through Jack Prince, of Sam's money making +and of his ability and prospects and, for a time, had designs upon his +affections. Several times when they were alone together she gave his +hand a characteristically impulsive squeeze and once upon the stairway +beside the grocery store offered him her lips to kiss. Later there +sprang up between her and Jack Prince a passionate love affair, dropped +finally by Prince through fear of her violent fits of anger. After Sam +had met Janet Eberly and had become her loyal friend and henchman all +show of affection or even of interest between him and Edith was at an +end and the kiss upon the stairs was forgotten. + + * * * * * + +Going up the stairway after the ride in the cable car Sam stood beside +Janet's wheel chair in the room at the front of the apartment facing +Wabash Avenue. The chair was by the window and faced an open coal +fire in a grate she had had built into the wall of the house. Outside, +through an open arched doorway, Edith moved noiselessly about taking +dishes from a little table. He knew that after a time Jack Prince would +come and take her to the theatre, leaving Janet and him to finish their +talk. + +Sam lighted his pipe and between puffs began talking, making a statement +that he knew would arouse her, and Janet, putting her hand impulsively +on his shoulder, began tearing the statement to bits. + +"You talk!" she broke out. "Books are not full of pretence and lies; you +business men are--you and Jack Prince. What do you know of books? They +are the most wonderful things in the world. Men sit writing them and +forget to lie, but you business men never forget. You and books! You +haven't read books, not real ones. Didn't my father know; didn't he save +himself from insanity through books? Do I not, sitting here, get the +real feel of the movement of the world through the books that men +write? Suppose I saw those men. They would swagger and strut and take +themselves seriously just like you or Jack or the grocer down stairs. +You think you know what's going on in the world. You think you are doing +things, you Chicago men of money and action and growth. You are blind, +all blind." + +The little woman, a light, half scorn, half amusement in her eyes, +leaned forward and ran her fingers through Sam's hair, laughing down +into the astonished face he turned up to her. + +"Oh, I'm not afraid, in spite of what Edith and Jack Prince say of you," +she went on impulsively. "I like you all right and if I were a well +woman I should make love to you and marry you and then see to it there +was something in this world for you besides money and tall buildings and +men and machines that make guns." + +Sam grinned. "You are like your father, driving the mowing machine up +and down under the church windows on Sunday mornings," he declared; "you +think you could remake the world by shaking your fist at it. I should +like to go and see you fined in a court room for starving sheep." + +Janet, closing her eyes and lying back in her chair, laughed with +delight and declared that they would have a splendid quarrelsome +evening. + +After Edith had gone out, Sam sat through the evening with Janet, +listening to her exposition of life and what she thought it should mean +to a strong capable fellow like himself, as he had been listening ever +since their acquaintanceship began. In the talk, and in the many talks +they had had together, talks that rang in his ears for years, the little +black-eyed woman gave him a glimpse into a whole purposeful universe of +thought and action of which he had never dreamed, introducing him to a +new world of men: methodical, hard-thinking Germans, emotional, dreaming +Russians, analytical, courageous Norwegians, Spaniards and Italians with +their sense of beauty, and blundering, hopeful Englishmen wanting so +much and getting so little; so that at the end of the evening he went +out of her presence feeling strangely small and insignificant against +the great world background she had drawn for him. + +Sam did not understand Janet's point of view. It was all too new and +foreign to everything life had taught him, and in his mind he fought +her ideas doggedly, clinging to his own concrete, practical thoughts and +hopes, but on the train homeward bound, and in his own room later, he +turned over and over in his mind the things she had said and tried in a +dim way to grasp the bigness of the conception of human life she had got +sitting in a wheel chair and looking down into Wabash Avenue. + +Sam loved Janet Eberly. No word of that had ever passed between them +and he had seen her hand flash out and grasp the shoulder of Jack Prince +when she was laying down to him some law of life as she saw it, as it +had so often shot out and grasped his own, but had she been able to +spring out of the wheel chair he should have taken her hand and gone +with her to the clergyman within the hour and in his heart he knew that +she would have gone with him gladly. + +Janet died suddenly during the second year of Sam's work for the gun +company without a direct declaration of affection from him, but during +the years when they were much together he thought of her as in a sense +his wife and when she died he was desolate, overdrinking night after +night and wandering aimlessly through the deserted streets during hours +when he should have been asleep. She was the first woman who ever got +hold of and stirred his manhood, and she awoke something in him that +made it possible for him later to see life with a broadness and scope of +vision that was no part of the pushing, energetic young man of dollars +and of industry who sat beside her wheeled chair during the evenings on +Wabash Avenue. + +After Janet's death, Sam did not continue his friendship with Edith, but +turned over to her the ten thousand dollars to which the six thousand of +Janet's money had grown in his hands and did not see her again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +One night in April Colonel Tom Rainey of the great Rainey Arms Company +and his chief lieutenant, young Sam McPherson, treasurer and chairman of +the board of directors of the company, slept together in a room in a St. +Paul hotel. It was a double room with two beds, and Sam, lying on his +pillow, looked across the bed to where the colonel's paunch protruding +itself between him and the light from a long narrow window, made a round +hill above which the moon just peeped. During the evening the two men +had sat for several hours at a table in the grill down stairs while Sam +discussed a proposition he proposed making to a St. Paul jobber the +next day. The account of the jobber, a large one, had been threatened by +Lewis, the Jew manager of the Edwards Arms Company, the Rainey Company's +only important western rival, and Sam was full of ideas to checkmate the +shrewd trade move the Jew had made. At the table, the colonel had been +silent and taciturn, an unusual attitude of mind for him, and Sam lay in +bed and looked at the moon gradually working its way over the undulating +abdominal hill, wondering what was in his mind. The hill dropped, +showing the full face of the moon, and then rose again obliterating it. + +"Sam, were you ever in love?" asked the colonel, with a sigh. + +Sam turned and buried his face in the pillow and the white covering +of his bed danced up and down. "The old fool, has it come to that with +him?" he asked himself. "After all these years of single life is he +going to begin running after women now?" + +He did not answer the colonel's question. "There are breakers ahead for +you, old boy," he thought, the figure of quiet, determined, little Sue +Rainey, the colonel's daughter, as he had seen her on the rare occasions +when he had dined at the Rainey home or she had come into the LaSalle +Street offices, coming into his mind. With a quiver of enjoyment of the +mental exercise, he tried to imagine the colonel as a swaggering blade +among women. + +The colonel, oblivious of Sam's mirth and of his silence regarding his +experience in the field of love, began talking, making amends for the +silence in the grill. He told Sam that he had decided to take to himself +a new wife, and confessed that the view of the matter his daughter might +take worried him. "Children are so unfair," he complained; "they forget +about a man's feelings and can't realise that his heart is still young." + +With a smile on his lips, Sam began trying to picture a woman's lying in +his place and looking at the moon over the pulsating hill. The colonel +continued talking. He grew franker, telling the name of his beloved and +the circumstances of their meeting and courtship. "She is an actress, a +working girl," he said feelingly. "I met her at a dinner given by Will +Sperry one evening and she was the only woman there who did not drink +wine. After the dinner we went for a drive together and she told me of +her hard life, of her fight against temptations, and of her brother, an +artist, she is trying to get started in the world. We have been together +a dozen times and have written letters, and, Sam, we have discovered an +affinity for each other." + +Sam sat up in bed. "Letters!" he muttered. "The old dog is going to get +himself involved." He dropped again upon the pillow. "Well, let him. Why +need I bother myself?" + +The colonel, having begun talking, could not stop. "Although we have +seen each other only a dozen times, a letter has passed between us every +day. Oh, if you could see the letters she writes. They are wonderful." + +A worried sigh broke from the colonel. "I want Sue to invite her to +the house, but I am afraid," he complained; "I am afraid she will be +wrong-headed about it. Women are such determined creatures. She and my +Luella should meet and know each other, but if I go home and tell her +she may make a scene and hurt Luella's feelings." + +The moon had risen, shedding its light in Sam's eyes, and he turned his +back to the colonel and prepared to sleep. The naive credulity of the +older man had touched a spring of mirth in him and from time to time the +covering of his bed continued to quiver suggestively. + +"I would not hurt her feelings for anything. She is the squarest little +woman alive," the voice of the colonel announced. The voice broke +and the colonel, who habitually roared forth his sentiments, began to +dither. Sam wondered if his feelings had been touched by the thoughts of +his daughter or of the lady from the stage. "It is a wonderful thing," +half sobbed the colonel, "when a young and beautiful woman gives her +whole heart into the keeping of a man like me." + +It was a week later before Sam heard more of the affair. Looking up +from his desk in the offices in LaSalle Street one morning, he found Sue +Rainey standing before him. She was a small athletic looking woman with +black hair, square shoulders, cheeks browned by the sun and wind, and +quiet grey eyes. She stood facing Sam's desk and pulled off a glove +while she looked down at him with amused, quizzical eyes. Sam rose, and +leaning over the flat-topped desk, took her hand, wondering what had +brought her there. + +Sue Rainey did not mince matters, but plunged at once into an +explanation of the purpose of her visit. From birth she had lived in an +atmosphere of wealth. Although she was not counted a beautiful woman, +she had, because of her wealth and the charm of her person, been much +courted. Sam, who had talked briefly with her a half dozen times, had +long had a haunting curiosity to know more of her personality. As she +stood there before him looking so wonderfully well-kept and confident he +thought her baffling and puzzling. + +"The colonel," she began, and then hesitated and smiled. "You, Mr. +McPherson, have become a figure in my father's life. He depends upon +you very much. He tells me that he has talked with you concerning a Miss +Luella London from the theatre, and that you have agreed with him that +the colonel and she should marry." + +Sam watched her gravely. A flicker of mirth ran through him, but his +face was grave and disinterested. + +"Yes?" he said, looking into her eyes. "Have you met Miss London?" + +"I have," answered Sue Rainey. "Have you?" + +Sam shook his head. + +"She is impossible," declared the colonel's daughter, clutching the +glove held in her hand and staring at the floor. A flush of anger rose +in her cheeks. "She is a crude, hard, scheming woman. She colours her +hair, she cries when you look at her, she hasn't even the grace to be +ashamed of what she is trying to do, and she has got the colonel into a +fix." + +Sam looked at the brown of Sue Rainey's cheek and thought the texture of +it beautiful. He wondered why he had heard her called a plain woman. +The heightened colour brought to her face by her anger had, he thought, +transfigured her. He liked her direct, forceful way of putting the +matter of the colonel's affair, and felt keenly the compliment implied +by her having come to him. "She has self-respect," he told himself, and +felt a thrill of pride in her attitude as though it had been inspired by +himself. + +"I have been hearing of you a great deal," she continued, glancing up +at him and smiling. "At our house you are brought to the table with the +soup and taken away with the liqueur. My father interlards his +table talk, and introduces all of his wise new axioms on economy and +efficiency and growth, with a constant procession of 'Sam says' and +'Sam thinks.' And the men who come to the house talk of you also. +Teddy Foreman says that at directors' meetings they all sit about like +children waiting for you to tell them what to do." + +She threw out her hand with an impatient little gesture. "I am in a +hole," she said. "I might handle my father but I cannot handle that +woman." + +While she had been talking to him Sam looked past her and out at a +window. When her eyes wandered from his face he looked again at her +brown firm cheeks. From the beginning of the interview he had been +intending to help her. + +"Give me the lady's address," he said; "I'll go look her over." + +Three evenings later Sam took Miss Luella London to a midnight supper +at one of the town's best restaurants. She knew the motive of his taking +her, as he had been quite frank in the few minutes' talk near the stage +door of the theatre when the engagement was made. As they ate, they +talked of the plays at the Chicago theatres, and Sam told her a story +of an amateur performance that had once taken place in the hall over +Geiger's drug store in Caxton when he was boy. In the performance Sam +had taken the rôle of a drummer boy killed on the field of battle by a +swaggering villain in a grey uniform, and John Telfer, in the rôle of +villain, had become so in earnest that, a pistol not exploding at a +critical moment, he had chased Sam about the stage trying to hit him +with the butt of the weapon while the audience roared with delight +at the realism of Telfer's rage and at the frightened boy begging for +mercy. + +Luella London laughed heartily at Sam's story and then, the coffee being +served, she fingered the handle of the cup and a shrewd look came into +her eyes. + +"And now you are a big business man and have come to see me about +Colonel Rainey," she said. + +Sam lighted a cigar. + +"Just how much are you counting on this marriage between yourself and +the colonel?" he asked bluntly. + +The actress laughed and poured cream into her coffee. A line came and +went on her forehead between her eyes. Sam thought she looked capable. + +"I have been thinking of what you told me at the stage door," she +said, and a childlike smile played about her lips. "Do you know, Mr. +McPherson, I can't just figure you. I can't just see how you get into +this. Where are your credentials, anyway?" + +Sam, keeping his eyes upon her face, took a jump into the dark. + +"It's this way," he said, "I'm something of an adventurer myself. I fly +the black flag. I come from where you do. I had to reach out my hand and +take what I wanted. I do not blame you in the least, but it just happens +that I saw Colonel Tom Rainey first. He is my game and I do not propose +to have you fooling around. I am not bluffing. You have got to get off +him." + +Leaning forward, he stared at her intently, and then lowered his voice. +"I've got your record. I know the man you used to live with. He's going +to help me get you if you do not drop it." + +Sitting back in his chair Sam watched her gravely. He had taken the odd +chance to win quickly by a bluff and had won. But Luella London was not +to be defeated without a struggle. + +"You lie," she cried, half springing from her chair. "Frank has never--" + +"Oh yes, Frank has," answered Sam, turning as though to call a waiter; +"I will have him here in ten minutes if you wish to be shown." + +Picking up a fork the woman began nervously picking holes in the table +cloth and a tear appeared upon her cheek. She took a handkerchief from +a bag that hung hooked over the back of a chair at the side of the table +and wiped her eyes. + +"All right! All right!" she said, bracing herself, "I'll drop it. If +you've dug up Frank Robson you've got me. He'll do anything you say for +a piece of money." + +For some minutes the two sat in silence. A tired look had come into the +woman's eyes. + +"I wish I was a man," she said. "I get whipped at everything I tackle +because I'm a woman. I'm getting past my money-making days in the +theatre and I thought the colonel was fair game." + +"He is," answered Sam dispassionately, "but you see I beat you to it. +He's mine." + +Glancing cautiously about the room, he took a roll of bills from his +pocket and began laying them one at a time upon the table. + +"Look here," he said, "you've done a good piece of work. You should have +won. For ten years half the society women of Chicago have been trying +to marry their daughters or their sons to the Rainey fortune. They +had everything to help them, wealth, good looks, and a standing in the +world. You have none of these things. How did you do it? + +"Anyway," he went on, "I'm not going to see you trimmed. I've got ten +thousand dollars here, as good Rainey money as ever was printed. You +sign this paper and then put the roll in your purse." + +"That's square," said Luella London, signing, and with the light coming +back into her eyes. + +Sam beckoned to the proprietor of the restaurant whom he knew and had +him and a waiter sign as witnesses. + +Luella London put the roll of bills into her purse. + +"What did you give me that money for when you had me beat anyway?" she +asked. + +Sam lighted a fresh cigar and folding the paper put it in his pocket. + +"Because I like you and I admire your skill," he said, "and anyway I did +not have you beaten until right now." + +They sat studying the people getting up from the tables and going +through the door to waiting carriages and automobiles, the well-dressed +women with assured airs serving Sam's mind to make a contrast for the +woman who sat with him. + +"I presume you are right about women," he said musingly, "it must be a +stiff game for you if you like winning on your own hook." + +"Winning! We don't win." The lips of the actress drew back showing her +white teeth. "No woman ever won who tried to play a straight fighting +game for herself." + +Her voice grew tense and the lines upon her forehead reappeared. + +"Woman can't stand alone," she went on, "she is a sentimental fool. She +reaches out her hand to some man and that in the end beats her. Why, +even when she plays the game as I played it against the colonel some rat +of a man like Frank Robson, for whom she has given up everything worth +while to a woman, sells her out." + +Sam looked at her hand, covered with rings, lying on the table. + +"Let's not misunderstand each other," he said quietly, "do not blame +Frank for this. I never knew him. I just imagined him." + +A puzzled look came into the woman's eyes and a flush rose in her +cheeks. + +"You grafter!" she sneered. + +Sam called to a passing waiter and ordered a fresh bottle of wine. + +"What's the use being sore?" he asked. "It's simple enough. You staked +against a better mind. Anyway you have the ten thousand, haven't you?" + +Luella reached for her purse. + +"I don't know," she said, "I'll look. Haven't you decided to steal it +back yet?" + +Sam laughed. + +"I'm coming to that," he said, "don't hurry me." + +For several minutes they sat eyeing each other, and then, with an +earnest ring in his voice and a smile on his lips, Sam began talking +again. + +"Look here!" he said, "I'm no Frank Robson and I do not like giving +a woman the worst of it. I have been studying you and I can't see you +running around loose with ten thousand dollars of real money on you. You +do not fit into the picture and the money will not last a year in your +hands. + +"Give it to me," he urged; "let me invest it for you. I'm a winner. I'll +double it for you in a year." + +The actress stared past Sam's shoulder to where a group of young men sat +about a table drinking and talking loudly. Sam began telling an anecdote +of an Irish baggage man in Caxton. When he had finished he looked at her +and laughed. + +"As that shoemaker looked to Jerry Donlin so you, as the colonel's wife, +looked to me," he said. "I had to make you get out of my flower bed." + +A gleam of resolution came into the wandering eyes of Luella London and +she took the purse from the back of the chair and brought out the roll +of bills. + +"I'm a sport," she said, "and I'm going to lay a bet on the best horse I +ever saw. You may trim me, but I always would take a chance." + +Turning, she called a waiter and, handing him a bill from her purse, +threw the roll on the table. + +"Take the pay for the spread and the wine we have had out of that," she +said, handing him the loose bill and then turning to Sam. "You ought to +beat the world. Anyway your genius gets recognition from me. I pay for +this party and when you see the colonel say good-bye to him for me." + +The next day, at his request, Sue Rainey called at the offices of the +Arms Company and Sam handed her the paper signed by Luella London. It +was an agreement on her part to divide with Sam, half and half, any +money she might be able to blackmail out of Colonel Rainey. + +The colonel's daughter glanced from the paper to Sam's face. + +"I thought so," she said, and a puzzled look came into her eyes. "But I +do not understand this. What does this paper do and what did you pay for +it?" + +"The paper," Sam answered, "puts her in a hole and I paid ten thousand +dollars for it." + +Sue Rainey laughed and taking a checkbook from her handbag laid it on +the desk and sat down. + +"Do you get your half?" she asked. + +"I get it all," answered Sam, and then leaning back in his chair +launched into an explanation. When he had told her of the talk in the +restaurant she sat with the checkbook lying before her and with the +puzzled look still in her eyes. + +Without giving her time for comment, Sam plunged into the midst of what +had been in his mind to say to her. + +"The woman will not bother the colonel any more," he declared; "if that +paper won't hold her something else will. She respects me and she is +afraid of me. We had a talk after she had signed the paper and she gave +me the ten thousand dollars to invest for her. I promised to double it +for her within a year and I want to make good. I want you to double it +now. Make the check for twenty thousand." + +Sue Rainey wrote the check, making it payable to bearer, and pushed it +across the table. + +"I cannot say that I understand yet," she confessed. "Did you also fall +in love with her?" + +Sam grinned. He was wondering whether he would be able to get into words +just what he wanted to tell her of the actress soldier of fortune. He +looked across the table at her frank grey eyes and then on an impulse +decided that he would tell it straight out as though she had been a man. + +"It's like this," he said. "I like ability and good brains and that +woman has them. She isn't a good woman, but nothing in her life has made +her want to be good. All her life she has been going the wrong way, and +now she wants to get on her feet and squared around. That's what she was +after the colonel for. She did not want to marry him, she wanted to +make him give her the start she was after. I got the best of her because +somewhere there is a snivelling little whelp of a man who has taken all +the good and the fineness out of her and who now stands ready to sell +her out for a few dollars. I imagined there would be such a man when I +saw her and I bluffed my way through to him. But I do not want to whip a +woman, even in such an affair, through the cheapness of some man. I want +to do the square thing by her. That's why I asked you to make that check +for twenty thousand." + +Sue Rainey rose and stood by the desk looking down at him. He was +thinking how wonderfully clear and honest her eyes. + +"And what about the colonel?" she asked. "What will he think of all +this?" + +Sam walked around the desk and took her hand. + +"We'll have to agree not to consider him," he said. "We really did that +you know when we started this thing. I think we can depend upon Miss +London's putting the finishing touches on the job." + +And Miss London did. She sent for Sam a week later and put tweny-five +hundred dollars into his hand. + +"That's not to invest for me," she said, "that's for yourself. By the +agreement I signed with you we were to split anything I got out of the +colonel. Well, I went light. I only got five thousand dollars." + +With the money in his hand Sam stood by the side of a little table in +her room looking at her. + +"What did you tell the colonel?" he asked. + +"I called him up here to my room last night and lying here in bed I told +him that I had just discovered I was the victim of an incurable disease. +I told him that within a month I would be in bed for keeps and asked +him to marry me at once and to take me away with him to some quiet place +where I could die in his arms." + +Coming over to Sam, Luella London put a hand upon his arm and laughed. + +"He began to beg off and make excuses," she went on, "and then I brought +out his letters to me and talked straight. He wilted at once and paid +the five thousand dollars I asked for the letters without a murmur. I +might have made it fifty and with your talent you ought to get all he +has in six months." + +Sam shook hands with her and told her of his success in doubling the +money she had put into his hands. Then putting the twenty-five hundred +dollars in his pocket he went back to his desk. He did not see her +again and when, through a lucky market turn, he had increased the twenty +thousand dollars she had left with him to twenty-five, he placed it +in the hands of a trust company for her and forgot the incident. +Years later he heard that she was running a fashionable dressmaking +establishment in a western city. + +And Colonel Tom Rainey, who had for months talked of nothing but factory +efficiency and of what he and young Sam McPherson were going to do +in the way of enlarging the business, began the next morning a tirade +against women that lasted the rest of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Sue Rainey had long touched the fancy of the youths of Chicago society +who, while looking at her trim little figure and at the respectable +size of the fortune behind it, were yet puzzled and disconcerted by her +attitude toward themselves. On the wide porches at golf clubs, where +young men in white trousers lounged and smoked cigarettes, and in +the down-town clubs, where the same young men spent winter afternoons +playing Kelly pool, they spoke of her, calling her an enigma. "She'll +end by being an old maid," they declared, and shook their heads at the +thought of so good a connection dangling loosely in the air just without +their reach. From time to time, one of the young men tore himself loose +from the group that contemplated her, and, with an opening volley of +books, candy, flowers and invitations to theatres, charged down upon +her, only to have the youthful ardour of his attack cooled by her +prolonged attitude of indifference. When she was twenty-one, a young +English cavalry officer, who came to Chicago to ride in the horse show +had, for some weeks, been seen much in her company and a report of their +engagement had been whispered through the town and talked of about the +nineteenth hole at the country clubs. The rumour proved to be without +foundation, the attraction to the cavalry officer having been a certain +brand of rare old wine the colonel had stored in his cellar and a +feeling of brotherhood with the swaggering old gun maker, rather than +the colonel's quiet little daughter. + +After the beginning of his acquaintanceship with her, and all during +the days when he stirred things up in the offices and shops of the +gun company, tales of the assiduous and often needy young men who were +camped on her trail reached Sam's ears. They would be in at the office +to see and talk with the colonel, who had several times confided to Sam +that his daughter Sue was already past the age at which right-minded +young women should marry, and in the absence of the father two or three +of them had formed a habit of stopping for a word with Sam, whom they +had met through the colonel or Jack Prince. They declared that they were +"squaring themselves with the colonel." Not a difficult thing to do, Sam +thought, as he drank the wine, smoked the cigars, and ate the dinners +of all without prejudice. Once, at luncheon, Colonel Tom discussed +these young men with Sam, pounding on a table so that the glasses jumped +about, and calling them damned upstarts. + +For his own part, Sam did not feel that he knew Sue Rainey, and +although, after their first meeting one evening at the Rainey house, he +had been pricked by a mild curiosity concerning her, no opportunity +to satisfy it had presented itself. He knew that she was athletic, +travelled much, rode, shot, and sailed a boat; and he had heard Jack +Prince speak of her as a woman of brains, but, until the incident of +the colonel and Luella London threw them for the moment into the same +enterprise and started him thinking of her with real interest, he had +seen and talked with her for but brief passing moments brought about by +their mutual interest in the affairs of her father. + +After Janet Eberly's sudden death, and while he was yet in the midst of +his grief at her loss, Sam had his first long talk with Sue Rainey. It +was in Colonel Tom's office, and Sam, walking hurriedly in, found her +sitting at the colonel's desk and staring out of the window at a broad +expanse of flat roofs. A man, climbing a flag pole to replace a slipped +rope, caught his attention and standing by the window looking at the +minute figure clinging to the swaying pole, he began talking of the +absurdity of human endeavour. + +The colonel's daughter listened respectfully to his rather obvious +banalities and getting up from her chair came to stand beside him. Sam +turned slyly to look at her firm brown cheeks as he had looked on the +morning when she had come to see him about Luella London and was struck +by the thought that she in some faint way reminded him of Janet Eberly. +In a moment, and rather to his own surprise, he burst into a long speech +telling of Janet, of the tragedy of her loss and something of the beauty +of her life and character. + +The nearness of his loss and the nearness also of what he thought might +be a sympathetic listener spurred him and he found himself getting a +kind of relief for the aching sense of loss for his dead comrade by +heaping praises upon her life. + +When he had finished saying what was in his mind, he stood by the window +feeling awkward and embarrassed. The man who climbed the flag pole +having put the rope through the ring at the top slid suddenly down the +pole and thinking for the moment that he had fallen Sam made a quick +clutch at the air with his hand. His gripping fingers closed over Sue +Rainey's hand. + +He turned, amused by the incident, and began making a halting +explanation. There were tears in Sue Rainey's eyes. + +"I wish I had known her," she said and drew her hand from between his +fingers. "I wish you had known me better that I also might have known +your Janet. They are rare--such women. They are worth much to know. Most +women like most men--" + +She made an impatient gesture with her hand and Sam, turning, walked +toward the door. He felt that he might not trust himself to answer her. +For the first time since coming to manhood he felt that tears might +at any moment come into his eyes. Grief for the loss of Janet surged +through him disconcerting and engulfing him. + +"I have been doing you an injustice," said Sue Rainey, looking at the +floor. "I have thought of you as something different from what you are. +There is a story I heard of you which gave me a wrong impression." + +Sam smiled. Having conquered the commotion within himself, he laughed +and explained the incident of the man who had slid down the pole. + +"What was the story you heard?" he asked. + +"It was a story a young man told at our house," she explained +hesitatingly, refusing to be carried away from her mood of seriousness. +"It was about a little girl you saved from drowning and a purse made up +and given you. Why did you take the money?" + +Sam looked at her squarely. The story was one that Jack Prince had +delight in telling. It concerned an incident of his early business life +in the city. + +One afternoon, when he was still in the employ of the commission firm, +he had taken a party of men for a trip on an excursion steamer on the +lake. He had a project into which he wanted them to go with him and +had taken them aboard the steamer to get them together and present the +merits of his scheme. During the trip a little girl had fallen overboard +and Sam, springing after her, had brought her safely aboard the boat. + +On the excursion steamer a cheer had arisen. A young man in a +broad-brimmed cowboy hat ran about taking up a collection. People +crowded forward to grasp Sam's hand and he had accepted the money +collected and had put it in his pocket. + +Among the men aboard the boat were several who, while they did not draw +back from going into Sam's project, had thought his taking the money +not manly. They had told the story, and it had come to the ears of Jack +Prince, who never tired of repeating it and always ended the story with +the request that the listener ask Sam why he had taken the money. + +Now in Colonel Tom's office facing Sue Rainey, Sam made the explanation +that had so delighted Jack Prince. + +"The crowd wanted to give me the money," he said, slightly perplexed. +"Why shouldn't I have taken it? I did not save the little girl for the +money, but because she was a little girl; and the money paid for my +ruined clothes and the expenses of the trip." + +With his hand on the doorknob he looked steadily at the woman before +him. + +"And I wanted the money," he announced, a ring of defiance in his voice. +"I have always wanted money, any money I could get." + +Sam went back to his own office and sat down at his desk. He had been +surprised by the cordiality and friendliness Sue Rainey had shown toward +him. On an impulse, he wrote a letter, defending his position in the +matter of the money taken on the excursion steamer and setting forth +something of the attitude of his mind toward money and business affairs. + +"I cannot see myself believing in the rot most business men talk," he +wrote at the end of the letter. "They are full of sentiment and ideals +which are not true. Having a thing to sell they always say it is the +best, although it may be third rate. I do not object to that. What I do +object to is the way they have of nursing a hope within themselves that +the third rate thing is first rate until the hope becomes a belief. In +the talk I had with that actress Luella London I told her that I myself +flew the black flag. Well, I do. I would lie about goods to sell them, +but I would not lie to myself. I will not stultify my own mind. If a man +crosses swords with me in a business deal and I come out of the affair +with the money, it is no sign that I am the greater rascal, rather it is +a sign that I am the keener man." + +With the note lying before him on the desk Sam wondered why he had +written it. It seemed to him an accurate and straightforward statement +of the business creed he had adopted for himself, but a rather absurd +note to write to a woman. And then, not allowing himself time to +reconsider his action, he addressed an envelope and going out into the +general offices dropped it into the mail chute. + +"It will let her know where I stand anyway," he thought, with a return +of the defiant mood in which he had told her the motive of his action on +the boat. + +Within the next ten days after the talk in Colonel Tom's office Sam saw +Sue Rainey several times coming to or going from her father's office. +Once, meeting in the little lobby by the office entrance, she stopped +and put out her hand which Sam took awkwardly. He had a feeling that she +would not have regretted an opportunity to continue the sudden little +intimacy that had sprung up between them in the few minutes' talk of +Janet Eberly. The feeling did not come from vanity but from a belief in +Sam that she was in some way lonely and wanting companionship. Although +she had been much courted she lacked, he thought, the talent for +comradeship or quick friendliness. "Like Janet she is more than half +intellect," he told himself, and felt a pang of regret for the slight +disloyalty of the further thought that there was in Sue a something more +substantial and solid than there had been in Janet. + +Suddenly Sam began wondering whether or not he would like to marry Sue +Rainey. His mind played with the idea. He took it with him to bed, and +it went with him all day in his hurried trips through offices and shops. +The thought having come to him persisted, and he began seeing her in a +new light. The odd half awkward little movements of her hands, and their +expressiveness, the brown fine texture of her cheeks, the clearness and +honesty of her grey eyes, the quick sympathy and understanding of his +feeling for Janet, and the subtle flattery of the notion he had got that +she was interested in him--all of these things came and went in his mind +while he ran through columns of figures and laid plans for the expansion +of the business of the Arms Company. Unconsciously he began to make her +a part of his plans for the future. + +Later, Sam discovered that during the days after the first talk together +the thought of a marriage between them was in Sue's mind also. After +the talk she went home and stood for an hour before the glass studying +herself and she once told Sam that in her bed that night she shed +tears because she had never been able to arouse in a man the note of +tenderness that had been in his voice when he talked to her of Janet. + +And then two months after the first talk they had another. Sam, who had +not allowed his grief over the loss of Janet or his nightly efforts +to drown the sting of it in hard drinking, to check the big forward +movement that he felt he was getting into the work of the offices and +shops, sat one afternoon deeply absorbed in a pile of factory cost +sheets. His shirt sleeves were rolled to the elbow, showing his white +muscular forearms. He was absorbed, intent upon the sheets. + +"I stepped in," said a voice above his head. + +Glancing up quickly, Sam sprang to his feet. "She must have been there +some minutes looking down at me," he thought, and had a thrill of +pleasure in the thought. + +Into his mind came the contents of the letter he had written her, and he +wondered if after all he had been a fool, and whether the thoughts of a +marriage with her were but vagaries. "Perhaps it would not be attractive +to either her or myself when we came up to it," he decided. + +"I stepped in," she began again. "I have been thinking. Some things +you said--in the letter and when you talked of your friend Janet who +died--some things of men and women and work. You may not remember them. +I--I got interested. I--are you a socialist?" + +"I believe not," Sam answered, wondering what had given her that +thought. "Are you?" + +She laughed and shook her head. + +"Just what are you?" she went on. "What do you believe? I am curious to +know. I thought your note--you will pardon me--I thought it a kind of +pretence." + +Sam winced. A shadow of doubt of the sincerity of his business +philosophy crossed his mind accompanied by the swaggering figure of +Windy McPherson. He came around the desk and leaning against it looked +at her. His secretary had gone out of the room and they were alone +together. Sam laughed. + +"There was a man in the town where I was raised used to say that I was a +little mole working underground, intent upon worms," he said, and then, +waving his arms toward the papers on the desk, added, "I am a business +man. Isn't that enough? If you could go with me through some of these +cost sheets you would agree they are needed." + +He turned and faced her again. + +"What should I be doing with beliefs?" he asked. + +"Well, I think you have them--some kind of beliefs," she insisted, "you +must have them. You get things done. You should hear the men talk +of you. Sometimes at the house they are quite foolish about what a +wonderful fellow you are and what you are doing here. They say that you +drive on and on. What drives you? I want to know." + +For the moment Sam half suspected that she was secretly laughing at +him. Finding her quite serious he started to reply and then stopped, +regarding her. + +The silence between them went on and on. A clock on the wall ticked +loudly. + +Sam stepped nearer to her and stood looking down into the face she +slowly turned up to his. + +"I want to have a talk with you," he said, and his voice broke. He had +the illusion of a hand gripping at his throat. + +In a flash he had definitely decided that he would try to marry her. +Her interest in the motives of his life had clinched the sort of half +decision he had made. In an illuminating moment during the prolonged +silence between them he had seen her in a new light. The feeling of +vague intimacy brought to him by his thoughts of her became a fixed +belief that she belonged to him--was a part of him--and he was charmed +with her manner, and her person, standing there, as with a gift given +him. + +And then into his mind came a hundred other thoughts, clamouring +thoughts, come out of the hidden parts of him. He began to think that +she could lead the way on a road he wanted to travel. He thought of her +wealth and what it would mean to a man filled with his hunger for power. +And through these thoughts shot others. Something in her had taken hold +of him--something that had been also in Janet. He was curious concerning +her curiosity about his beliefs, and wanted to question her concerning +her own beliefs. He could see none of Colonel Tom's blustering +incompetence in her and thought her filled with truth as a deep spring +is filled with clear water. He believed she would give him something, +something that all his life he had been wanting. An old aching hunger +that had haunted his nights as a boy came back and he thought that at +her hand it might be fed. + +"I--I must read a book about socialism," he said lamely. + +Again they stood in silence, she looking at the floor, he past her head +and out at the window. He could not bring himself to speak again of the +proposed talk. He had a boyish dread of having her notice the tremor in +his voice. + +Colonel Tom came into the room, bursting with an idea Sam had given him +at the lunch hour and which in working its way into his mind had +become to the colonel's entirely honest belief an idea of his own. The +interruption brought to Sam an intense feeling of relief and he began +talking of the colonel's idea as though it had taken him unawares. + +Sue, walking to a window, began tying and untying the curtain cord. When +Sam, raising his eyes, looked at her, he caught her eyes watching him +intently and she smiled, continuing to look at him squarely. It was his +eyes that first broke away. + +From that day Sam's mind was afire with thoughts of Sue Rainey. In his +room he sat, or going into Grant Park stood by the lake, looking at the +silent, moving water as he had looked in the days when he first came to +the city. He did not dream of having her in his arms or of kissing her +lips; he thought, instead, with a glowing heart, of a life lived with +her. He wanted to walk beside her through the streets, to have her come +suddenly in at his office door, to look into her eyes and to have her +question him, as she had questioned, concerning his beliefs and his +hopes. He thought that in the evening he would like to go to a house of +his own and find her sitting there waiting for him. All the charm of his +aimless, half-dissolute way of life died in him, and he believed that +with her he could begin to live more fully and completely. From the +moment when he had definitely decided that he wanted Sue as a wife, Sam +stopped overdrinking, going to his room or walking through the streets +or in the parks instead of seeking his old companions in the clubs and +drinking places. Sometimes pushing his bed to the window overlooking the +lake, he would undress immediately after dinner and opening the window +would spend half the night watching the lights of boats far away over +the water and thinking of her. He would imagine her in the room, moving +here and there, and coming occasionally to put her hand in his hair and +look down at him as Janet had done, helping by her sane talk and quiet +ways to get his life straightened out for good living. + +And when he had fallen asleep the face of Sue Rainey came to visit his +dreams. One night he thought she had become blind and sat in the room +with sightless eyes saying over and over like one demented, "Truth, +truth, give me back the truth that I may see," and he awoke sick with +horror at the thought of the look of suffering that had been in her +face. Never did Sam dream of having her in his arms or of raining kisses +on her lips and neck as he had dreamed of other women who in the past +had won his favour. + +For all that he thought of her so constantly and built so confidently +his dream of a life to be spent with her, months passed before he saw +her again. Through Colonel Tom he learned that she had gone for a visit +to the East and he went earnestly about his work, keeping his mind on +his business during the day and only in the evening allowing himself to +become absorbed in thoughts of her. He had a feeling that although he +had said nothing she knew of his desire for her and that she wanted time +to think it over. Several times in the evening in his room he wrote her +long letters filled with minute, boyish explanations of his thoughts and +motives, letters which after writing he immediately destroyed. A woman +of the west side, with whom he had once had an affair, met him one day +on the street, and put her hand familiarly on his arm and for the moment +reawakened in him an old desire. After leaving her he did not go back to +the office, but taking a south-bound car, spent the afternoon walking +in Jackson Park, watching the children at play on the grass, sitting +on benches under the trees, getting out of his body and his mind the +insistent call of the flesh that had come back to him. + +Then in the evening, he came suddenly upon Sue riding a spirited black +horse in a bridle path at the upper end of the park. It was just at the +grey beginning of night. Stopping the horse, she sat looking at him and +going to her he put a hand on the bridle. + +"We might have that talk," he said. + +She smiled down at him and the colour began to rise in her brown cheeks. + +"I have been thinking of it," she said, the familiar serious look coming +into her eyes. "After all what have we to say to each other?" + +Sam watched her steadily. + +"I have a lot of things to say to you," he announced. "That is to +say--well--I have, if things are as I hope." She got off the horse and +they stood together by the side of the path. Sam never forgot the few +minutes of silence that followed. The wide prospects of green sward, the +golf player trudging wearily toward them through the uncertain light, +his bag upon his shoulder, the air of physical fatigue with which he +walked, bending slightly forward, the faint, soft sound of waves washing +over a low beach, and the intense waiting look on the face she turned +up to him, made an impression on his mind that stayed with him through +life. It seemed to him that he had arrived at a kind of culmination, a +starting point, and that all the vague shadowy uncertainties that had, +in reflective moments, flitted through his mind, were to be brushed +away by some act, some word, from the lips of this woman. With a rush he +realised how consistently he had been thinking of her and how enormously +he had been counting on her falling in with his plans, and the +realisation was followed by a sickening moment of fear. How little he +actually knew of her and of her way of thought. What assurance had he +that she would not laugh, jump back upon the horse, and ride away? He +was afraid as he had never been afraid before. Dumbly his mind groped +about for a way to begin. Expressions he had caught and noted in her +strong serious little face when he had achieved but a mild curiosity +concerning her came back to visit his mind and he tried desperately to +build an instant idea of her from these. And then turning his face from +her he plunged directly into his thoughts of the past months as though +she had been sharing talking to the colonel. + +"I have been thinking we might marry, you and I," he said, and cursed +himself for the blundering bluntness of the declaration. + +"You do get things done, don't you?" she replied, smiling. + +"Why should you have been thinking anything of the sort?" + +"Because I want to live with you," he said; "I have been talking to the +colonel." + +"About marrying me?" She seemed about to begin laughing. + +He hurried on. "No, not that. We talked about you. I could not let him +alone. He might have known. I kept making him talk. I made him tell me +about your ideas. I felt I had to know." + +Sam faced her. + +"He thinks your ideas absurd. I do not. I like them. I like you. I think +you are beautiful. I do not know whether I love you or not, but for +weeks I have been thinking of you and clinging to you and saying over +and over to myself, 'I want to live my life with Sue Rainey.' I did not +expect to go at it this way. You know me. What you do not know I will +tell you." + +"Sam McPherson, you are a wonder," she said, "and I do not know but that +I will marry you in the end, but I can't tell now. I want to know a lot +of things. I want to know if you are ready to believe what I believe and +to live for what I want to live." + +The horse, growing restless, began tugging at the bridle and she spoke +to him sharply. She plunged into a description of a man she had seen on +the lecture platform during her visit to the East and Sam looked at her +with puzzled eyes. + +"He was beautiful," she said. "He was past sixty but looked like a boy +of twenty-five, not in his body, but in an air of youth that hung over +him. He stood there before the people talking, quiet, able, efficient. +He was clean. He had lived clean, body and mind. He had been companion +and co-worker with William Morris, and once he had been a mine boy in +Wales, but he had got hold of a vision and lived for it. I did not hear +what he said, but I kept thinking, 'I want a man like that.' + +"Can you accept my beliefs and live for what I want to live?" she +persisted. + +Sam looked at the ground. It seemed to him that he was going to lose +her, that she would not marry him. + +"I am not accepting beliefs or ends in life blindly," he said stoutly, +"but I want them. What are your beliefs? I want to know. I think I +haven't any myself. When I reach for them they are gone. My mind shifts +and changes. I want something solid. I like solid things. I want you." + +"When can we meet and talk everything over thoroughly?" + +"Now," answered Sam bluntly, some look in her face changing his whole +viewpoint. Suddenly it seemed as though a door had been opened, letting +in a strong light upon the darkness of his mind. His confidence had come +back to him. He wanted to strike and keep on striking. The blood rushed +through his body and his brain began working rapidly. He felt sure of +ultimate success. + +Taking her hand, and leading the horse, he began walking with her along +the path. Her hand trembled in his and as though answering a thought in +his mind she looked up at him and said, + +"I am not different from other women, although I do not accept your +offer. This is a big moment for me, perhaps the biggest moment of my +life. I want you to know that I feel that, though I do want certain +things more than I want you or any other man." + +There was a suggestion of tears in her voice and Sam had a feeling that +the woman in her wanted him to take her into his arms, but something +within him told him to wait and to help her by waiting. Like her he +wanted something more than the feel of a woman in his arms. Ideas rushed +through his head; he thought that she was going to give him some bigger +idea than he had known. The figure she had drawn for him of the old man +who stood on the platform, young and beautiful, the old boyish need of +a purpose in life, the dreams of the last few weeks--all of these were a +part of the eager curiosity in him. They were like hungry little animals +waiting to be fed. "We must have it all out here and now," he told +himself. "I must not let myself be swept away by a rush of feeling and I +must not let her be. + +"Do not think," he said, "that I haven't tenderness for you. I am filled +with it. But I want to have our talk. I want to know what you expect me +to believe and how you want me to live." + +He felt her hand stiffen in his. + +"Whether or not we are worth while to each other," she added. + +"Yes," he said. + +And then she began to talk, telling him in a quiet steady voice that +steadied something in him what she wanted to make out of her life. Her +idea was one of service to mankind through children. She had seen girl +friends of hers, with whom she had gone to school, grow up and marry. +They had wealth and education, fine well-trained bodies, and they had +been married only to live lives more fully devoted to pleasure. One or +two who had married poor men had only done so to satisfy a passion +in themselves, and after marriage had joined the others in the hungry +pursuit of pleasure. + +"They do nothing at all," she said, "to repay the world for the things +given them, the wealth and well-trained bodies and the disciplined +minds. They go through life day after day and year after year wasting +themselves and come in the end to nothing but indolent, slovenly +vanity." + +She had thought it all out and had tried to plan for herself a life with +other ends, and wanted a husband in accord with her ideas. + +"That isn't so difficult," she said, "I can find a man whom I can +control and who will believe as I believe. My money gives me that power. +But I want him to be a real man, a man of ability, a man who does things +for himself, one fitted by his life and his achievements to be the +father of children who do things. And so I began thinking about you. I +got the men who come to the house to talk of you." + +She hung her head and laughed like a bashful boy. + +"I know much of the story of your early life out in that Iowa town," she +said. "I got the story of your life and your achievements out there from +some one who knew you well." + +The idea seemed wonderfully simple and beautiful to Sam. It seemed to +add tremendously to the dignity and nobility of his feeling for her. He +stopped in the path and swung her about facing him. They were alone in +that end of the park. The soft darkness of the summer night had settled +over them. In the grass at their feet a cricket sang loudly. He made a +movement to take her into his arms. + +"It is wonderful," he said. + +"Wait," she demanded, putting her hand against his shoulder. "It isn't +so simple. I am wealthy. You are able and you have a kind of undying +energy in you. I want to give both my wealth and your ability to +children--our children. That will not be easy for you. It means giving +up your dreams of power. Perhaps I shall lose courage. Women do after +two or three have come. You will have to furnish that. You will have to +make a mother of me and keep making a mother of me. You will have to be +a new kind of father with something maternal in you. You will have to be +patient and studious and kind. You will have to think of these things at +night instead of thinking of your own advancement. You will have to live +wholly for me because I am to be their mother, giving me your strength +and courage and your good sane outlook on things. And then when they +come you will have to give all these things to them day after day in a +thousand little ways." + +Sam took her into his arms and for the first time in his memory the hot +tears stood in his eyes. + +The horse, unattended, wheeled, threw up his head and trotted off down +the path. They let him go, walking along after him hand in hand like two +happy children. At the entrance to the park they came up to him, held by +a park policeman. She got on the horse and Sam stood beside her looking +up. + +"I'll tell the colonel in the morning," he said. + +"What will he say?" she murmured, musingly. + +"Damned ingrate," Sam mimicked the colonel's blustering throat tones. + +She laughed and picked up the reins. Sam laid his hand on hers. + +"How soon?" he asked. + +She put her head down near his. + +"We'll waste no time," she said, blushing. + +And then in the presence of a park policeman, in the street by the +entrance to the park with the people passing up and down, Sam had his +first kiss from Sue Rainey's lips. + +After she rode away Sam walked. He had no sense of the passing of time, +wandering through street after street, rearranging and readjusting his +outlook on life. What she had said had stirred every vestige of sleeping +nobility in him. He thought that he had got hold of the thing he had +unconsciously been seeking all his life. His dreams of control of the +Rainey Arms Company and the other big things he had planned in business +seemed, in the light of their talk, so much nonsense and vanity. "I will +live for this! I will live for this!" he kept saying over and over to +himself. He imagined he could see the little white things lying in Sue's +arms, and his new love for her and for what they were to accomplish +together ran through him and hurt him so that he felt like shouting +in the darkened streets. He looked up at the sky and saw the stars and +thought they looked down on two new and glorious beings living on the +earth. + +At a corner he turned and came into a quiet residence street where frame +houses stood in the midst of little green lawns and thoughts of his +boyhood in the Iowa town came back to him. And then his mind moving +forward, he remembered nights in the city when he had stolen away to the +arms of women. Hot shame burned in his cheeks and his eyes felt hot. + +"I must go to her--I must go to her at her house--now--tonight--and tell +her all of these things, and beg her to forgive me," he thought. + +And then the absurdity of such a course striking him he laughed aloud. + +"It cleanses me! this cleanses me!" he said to himself. + +He remembered the men who had sat about the stove in Wildman's grocery +when he was a boy and the stories they sometimes told. He remembered how +he, as a boy in the city, had run through the crowded streets fleeing +from the terror of lust. He began to understand how distorted, how +strangely perverted, his whole attitude toward women and sex had been. +"Sex is a solution, not a menace--it is wonderful," he told himself +without knowing fully the meaning of the word that had sprung to his +lips. + +When, at last, he turned into Michigan Avenue and went toward his +apartment, the late moon was just mounting the sky and a clock in one of +the sleeping houses was striking three. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +One evening, six weeks after the talk in the gathering darkness in +Jackson Park, Sue Rainey and Sam McPherson sat on the deck of a Lake +Michigan steamer watching the lights of Chicago blink out in the +distance. They had been married that afternoon in Colonel Tom's big +house on the south side; and now they sat on the deck of the boat, being +carried out into darkness, vowed to motherhood and to fatherhood, each +more or less afraid of the other. They sat in silence, looking at +the blinking lights and listening to the low voices of their fellow +passengers, also sitting in the chairs along the deck or strolling +leisurely about, and to the wash of the water along the sides of the +boat, eager to break down a little reserve that the solemnity of the +marriage service had built up between them. + +A picture floated in Sam's mind. He saw Sue, all in white, radiant and +wonderful, coming toward him down a broad stairway, toward him, the +newsboy of Caxton, the smuggler of game, the roisterer, the greedy +moneygetter. All during those six weeks he had been waiting for this +hour when he should sit beside the little grey-clad figure, getting from +her the help he wanted in the reconstruction of his life. Without being +able to talk as he had thought of talking, he yet felt assured and easy +in his mind. In the moment when she had come down the stairway he had +been half overcome by a feeling of intense shame, a return of the shame +that had swept over him that night when she had given her word and he +had walked hour after hour through the streets. It had seemed to him +that from among the guests standing about should arise a voice crying, +"Stop! Do not go on! Let me tell you of this fellow--this McPherson!" +And then he had seen her holding to the arm of swaggering, pretentious +Colonel Tom and he had taken her hand to become one with her, two +curious, feverish, strangely different human beings, taking a vow in the +name of their God, with the flowers banked about them and the eyes of +people upon them. + +When Sam had gone to Colonel Tom the morning after that evening in +Jackson Park, there had been a scene. The old gun maker had blustered +and roared and forbidden, pounding on his desk with his fist. When Sam +remained cool and unimpressed, he had stormed out of the room slamming +the door and shouting, "Upstart! Damned upstart!" and Sam had gone +smiling back to his desk, mildly disappointed. "I told Sue he would say +'Ingrate,'" he thought, "I am losing my skill at guessing just what he +will do and say." + +The colonel's rage had been short-lived. Within a week he was boasting +of Sam to chance callers as "the best business man in America," and +in the face of a solemn promise given Sue was telling news of the +approaching marriage to every newspaper man he knew. Sam suspected +him of secretly calling on the telephone those newspapers whose +representatives had not crossed his trail. + +During the six waiting weeks there had been little of love making +between Sue and Sam. They had talked instead, or, going into the country +or to the parks, had walked under the trees consumed with a curious +eager passion of suspense. The idea she had given him in the park grew +in Sam's brain. To live for the young things that would presently come +to them, to be simple, direct, and natural, like the trees or the +beasts of the field, and then to have the native honesty of such a life +illuminated and ennobled by a mutual intelligent purpose to make their +young something finer and better than the things in Nature by the +intelligent use of their own good minds and bodies. In the shops and +on the streets the hurrying men and women took on a new significance to +him. He wondered what secret mighty purpose might be in their lives, +and read a newspaper report of an engagement or a marriage with a little +jump of the heart. He looked at the girls and the women at work over +the typewriting machines in the office, with questioning eyes, asking +himself why they did not seek marriage openly and determinedly, and +saw a healthy single woman as so much wasted material, as a machine +for producing healthy new life standing idle and unused in the great +workshop of the universe. "Marriage is a port, a beginning, a point of +departure, from which men and women go forth upon the real voyage of +life," he told Sue one evening as they walked in the park. "All that +goes before is but a preparation, a building. The pains and the triumphs +of all unmarried people are but the good oak planks being driven into +place to make the vessel fit for the real voyage." Or, again, one night +when they were in a rowboat on the lagoon in the park and all about +them in the darkness was the plash of oars in the water, the screams of +excited girls, and the sound of voices calling, he let the boat float in +against the shores of a little island and crept along the boat to kneel, +with his head in her lap and whisper, "It is not the love of a woman +that grips me, Sue, but the love of life. I have had a peep into the +great mystery. This--this is why we are here--this justifies us." + +Now that she sat beside him, her shoulder against his own, being carried +away with him into darkness and privacy, the personal side of his love +for her ran through Sam like a flame and, turning, he drew her head down +upon his shoulder. + +"Not yet, Sam," she whispered, "not with these hundreds of people +sleeping and drinking and thinking and going about their affairs almost +within touch of our hands." + +They got up and walked along the swaying deck. Out of the north the +clean wind called to them, the stars looked down upon them, and in the +darkness in the bow of the boat they parted for the night silently, +speechless with happiness and with a dear, unmentioned secret between +them. + +At dawn they landed at a little lumbering town, where boat, blankets, +and camping kit had gone before. A river flowed down out of the woods +passing the town, going under a bridge and turning the wheel of a +sawmill that stood by the shore of the river facing the lake. The clean +sweet smell of the new-cut logs, the song of the saws, the roar of +the water tumbling over a dam, the cries of the blue-shirted lumbermen +working among the floating logs above the dam, filled the morning air, +and above the song of the saws sang another song, a breathless, waiting +song, the song of love and of life singing in the hearts of husband and +wife. + +In a little roughly-built lumberman's hotel they ate breakfast in a room +overlooking the river. The proprietor of the hotel, a large red-faced +woman in a clean calico dress, was expecting them and, having served the +breakfast, went out of the room grinning good naturedly and closing +the door behind her. Through the open window they looked at the cold +swiftly-flowing river and at a freckled-faced boy who carried packages +wrapped in blankets and put them in a long canoe tied to a little +wharf beside the hotel. They ate and sat staring at each other like two +strange boys, saying nothing. Sam ate little. His heart pounded in his +breast. + +On the river he sank his paddle deep into the water, pulling against the +current. During the six weeks' waiting in Chicago she had taught him the +essentials of the canoeist's art and, now, as he shot the canoe under +the bridge and around a bend of the river out of sight of the town, a +superhuman strength seemed in his arms and back. Before him in the +prow of the boat sat Sue, her straight muscular little back bending and +straightening again. By his side rose towering hills clothed with pine +trees, and piles of cut logs lay at the foot of the hills along the +shore. + +At sunset they landed in a little cleared space at the foot of a hill +and on the top of the hill, with the wind blowing across it, they +made their first camp. Sam brought boughs and spread them, lapped like +feathers in the wings of a bird, and carried blankets up the hill, while +Sue, at the foot, near the overturned boat, built a fire and prepared +their first cooked meal out of doors. In the failing light, Sue got out +her rifle and gave Sam his first lesson in marksmanship, his awkwardness +making the lesson half a jest. And then, in the soft stillness of the +young night, with the first stars coming into the sky and the clean cold +wind blowing into their faces, they went arm in arm up the hill under +the trees to where the tops of the trees rolled and pitched like the +stormy waters of a great sea before their eyes, and lay down together +for their first long tender embrace. + +There is a special kind of fine pleasure in getting one's first +knowledge of the great outdoors in the company of a woman a man loves +and to have that woman an expert, with a keen appetite for the life, +adds point and flavour to the experience. In his busy striving, +nickel-seeking boyhood in the town surrounded by hot cornfields, and in +his young manhood of scheming and money hunger in the city, Sam had not +thought of vacations and resting places. He had walked on country roads +with John Telfer and Mary Underwood, listening to their talk, absorbing +their ideas, blind and deaf to the little life in the grass, in the +leafy branches of the trees and in the air about him. In clubs, and +about hotels and barrooms in the city, he had heard men talk of life +in the open, and had said to himself, "When my time comes I will taste +these things." + +And now he did taste them, lying on his back on the grass along the +river, floating down quiet little side streams in the moonlight, +listening to the night call of birds, or watching the flight of +frightened wild things as he pushed the canoe into the quiet depths of +the great forest about them. + +At night, under the little tent they had brought, or beneath the +blankets under the stars, he slept lightly, awakening often to look at +Sue lying beside him. Perhaps the wind had blown a wisp of hair across +her face and her breath played with it, tossing it about; perhaps just +the quiet of her expressive little face charmed and held him, so that he +turned reluctantly to sleep again thinking that he might, with pleasure, +go on looking at her all night. + +For Sue the days also passed lightly. She also awoke in the night and +lay looking at the man sleeping beside her, and once she told Sam that +when he awoke she feigned sleep dreading to rob him of the pleasure that +she knew these secret love passages gave to both. + +They were not alone in those northern woods. Everywhere along the rivers +and on the shores of little lakes they found people, to Sam a new kind +of people, who dropped all the ordinary things of life, and ran away +to the woods and the streams to spend long happy months in the open. +He discovered with surprise that these adventurers were men of modest +fortunes, small manufacturers, skilled workingmen, retail merchants. One +with whom he talked was a grocer from a town in Ohio, and when Sam asked +him if the coming to the woods with his family for an eight-weeks stay +did not endanger the success of his business he agreed with Sam that it +did, nodding his head and laughing. + +"But there would be a lot more danger in not leaving it," he said, "the +danger of having my boys grow up to be men without my having any real +fun with them." + +Among all of the people they met Sue passed with a sort of happy freedom +that confounded Sam, as he had formed a habit of thinking of her always +as one shut within herself. Many of the people they saw she knew, and +he came to believe that she had chosen the place for their love making +because she admired and held in high favour the lives of these people of +the out-of-doors and wanted her lover to be in some way like them. Out +of the solitude of the woods, along the shores of little lakes, they +called to her as she passed, demanding that she come ashore and show +her husband, and among them she sat talking of other seasons and of the +inroads of the lumber men upon their paradise. "The Burnhams were +this year on the shores of Grant Lake, the two school teachers from +Pittsburgh would come early in August, the Detroit man with the crippled +son was building a cabin on the shores of Bone River." + +Sam sat among them in silence, renewing constantly his admiration for +the wonder of Sue's past life. She, the daughter of Colonel Tom, the +woman rich in her own right, to have made her friends among these +people; she, who had been pronounced an enigma by the young men of +Chicago, to have been secretly all of these years the companion and +fellow spirit of these campers by the lakes. + +For six weeks they led a wandering, nomadic life in that half wild land, +for Sue six weeks of tender love making, and of the expression of +every thought and impulse of her fine nature, for Sam six weeks of +readjustment and freedom, during which he learned to sail a boat, to +shoot, and to get the fine taste of that life into his being. + +And then one morning they came again to the little lumber town at the +mouth of the river and sat upon the pier waiting for the Chicago boat. +They were bound once more into the world, and to that life together that +was the foundation of their marriage and that was to be the end and aim +of their two lives. + +If Sam's life from boyhood had been, on the whole, barren and empty of +many of the sweeter things, his life during the next year was strikingly +full and complete. In the office he had ceased being the pushing upstart +tramping on the toes of tradition and had become the son of Colonel Tom, +the voter of Sue's big stock holdings, the practical, directing head and +genius of the destinies of the company. Jack Prince's loyalty had been +rewarded, and a huge advertising campaign made the name and merits of +the Rainey Arms Company's wares known to all reading Americans. The +muzzles of Rainey-Whittaker rifles, revolvers, and shotguns looked +threateningly out at one from the pages of the great popular magazines, +brown fur-clad hunters did brave deeds before one's eyes, kneeling upon +snow-topped crags preparing to speed winged death to waiting mountain +sheep; huge open-mouthed bears rushed down from among the type at the +top of the pages and seemed about to devour cool deliberate sportsmen +who stood undaunted, swinging their trusty Rainey-Whittakers into place, +and presidents, explorers, and Texas gun fighters loudly proclaimed the +merits of Rainey-Whittakers to a gun-buying world. It was for Sam +and for Colonel Tom a time of big dividends, mechanical progress, and +contentment. + +Sam stayed diligently at work in the offices and in the shops, but kept +within himself a reserve of strength and resolution that might have gone +into the work. With Sue he took up golf and morning rides on horseback, +and with Sue he sat during the long evenings, reading aloud, absorbing +her ideas and her beliefs. Sometimes for days they were like two +children, going off together to walk on country roads and to sleep in +country hotels. On these walks they went hand in hand or, bantering each +other, raced down long hills to lie panting in the grass by the roadside +when they were out of breath. + +Near the end of the first year she told him one night of the realisation +of their hopes and they sat through the evening alone by the fire in her +room, filled with the white wonder of it, renewing to each other all the +fine vows of their early love-making days. + +Sam never succeeded in recapturing the flavour of those days. Happiness +is a thing so vague, so indefinite, so dependent on a thousand little +turns of the events of the day, that it only visits the most fortunate +and at rare intervals, but Sam thought that he and Sue touched almost +ideal happiness constantly during that time. There were weeks and even +months of their first year together that later passed out of Sam's +memory entirely, leaving only a sense of completeness and well being. +He could remember, perhaps, a winter walk in the moonlight by the frozen +lake, or a visitor who sat and talked an evening away by their fire. But +at the end he had to come back to this: that something sang in his +heart all day long and that the air tasted better, the stars shone more +brightly, and the wind and the rain and the hail upon the window panes +sang more sweetly in his ears. He and the woman who lived with him had +wealth, position, and infinite delight in the presence and the persons +of each other, and a great idea burned like a lamp in a window at the +end of the road they travelled. + +Meanwhile, in the world about him events came and went. A president +was elected, the grey wolves were being hunted out of the Chicago city +council, and a strong rival to his company flourished in his own +city. In other days he would have been down upon this rival fighting, +planning, working for its destruction. Now he sat at Sue's feet, +dreaming and talking to her of the brood that under their care should +grow into wonderful reliant men and women. When Lewis, the talented +sales manager of the Edwards Arms Company, got the business of a +Kansas City jobber, he smiled, wrote a sharp letter to his man in that +territory, and went for an afternoon of golf with Sue. He had completely +and wholly accepted Sue's conception of life. "We have wealth for any +emergency," he said to himself, "and we will live our lives for service +to mankind through the children that will presently come into our +house." + +After their marriage Sam found that Sue, for all her apparent coldness +and indifference, had in Chicago, as in the northern woods, her own +little circle of men and women. Some of these people Sam had met during +the engagement, and now they began gradually coming to the house for an +evening with the McPhersons. Sometimes there would be several of them +for a quiet dinner at which there was much good talk, and after which +Sue and Sam sat for half the night, continuing some vein of thought +brought to them. Among the people who came to them, Sam shone +resplendent. In some indefinable way he thought they paid court to him +and the thought flattered him immensely. The college professor who had +talked brilliantly through an evening turned to Sam for approval of his +conclusions, a writer of tales of cowboy life asked him to help him over +a difficulty in the stock market, and a tall black-haired painter paid +him the rare compliment of repeating one of Sam's remarks as his own. It +was as though, in spite of their talk, they thought him the most gifted +of them all, and for a time he was puzzled by their attitude. Jack +Prince came, sat at one of the dinner parties, and explained. + +"You have got what they want and cannot get--the money," he said. + +After the evening when Sue told him the great news they gave a dinner. +It was a sort of welcoming party for the coming guest, and, while the +people at the table ate and talked, Sue and Sam, from opposite ends +of the table, lifted high their glasses and, looking into each other's +eyes, drank off the health of him who was to come, the first of the +great family, the family that was to have two lives lived for its +success. + +At the table sat Colonel Tom with his broad white shirt front, his +white, pointed beard, and his grandiloquent flow of talk; at Sue's side +sat Jack Prince, pausing in his open admiration of Sue to cast an eye +on the handsome New York girl at Sam's end of the table or to puncture, +with a flash of his terse common sense, some balloon of theory launched +by Williams of the University, who sat on the other side of Sue; the +artist, who hoped for a commission to paint Colonel Tom, sat opposite +him bewailing the dying out of fine old American families; and a +serious-faced little German scientist sat beside Colonel Tom smiling +as the artist talked. The man, Sam fancied, was laughing at them both, +perhaps at all of them. He did not mind. He looked at the scientist and +at the other faces up and down the table and then at Sue. He saw her +directing and leading the talk; he saw the play of muscles about her +strong neck and the fine firmness of her straight little body, and his +eyes grew moist and a lump came into his throat at the thought of the +secret that lay between them. + +And then his mind ran back to another night in Caxton when first he sat +eating among strange people at Freedom Smith's table. He saw again the +tomboy girl and the sturdy boy and the lantern swinging in Freedom's +hand in the close little stable; he saw the absurd housepainter trying +to blow the bugle in the street; and the mother talking to her boy of +death through the summer evening; the fat foreman making the record +of his loves on the walls of his room, the narrow-faced commission man +rubbing his hands before a group of Greek hucksters, and then this--this +home with its safety and its secret high aim and him sitting there at +the head of it all. Like the novelist, it seemed to him that he should +admire and bow his head before the romance of destiny. He thought his +station, his wife, his country, his end in life, when rightly seen, the +very apex of life on the earth, and to him in his pride it seemed that +he was in some way the master and maker of it all. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Late one evening, some weeks after the McPhersons had given the dinner +party in secret celebration of the future arrival of what was to be the +first of the great family, they came together down the steps of a north +side house to their waiting carriage. They had spent, Sam thought, a +delightful evening. The Grovers were people of whose friendship he was +particularly proud and since his marriage with Sue he had taken her +often for an evening to the house of the venerable surgeon. Doctor +Grover was a scholar, a man of note in the medical world, and a rapid +and absorbing talker and thinker on any subject that aroused his +interest. A certain youthful enthusiasm in his outlook on life had +attracted to him the devotion of Sue, who, since meeting him through +Sam, had counted him a marked addition to their little group of friends. +His wife, a white-haired, plump little woman, was, though apparently +somewhat diffident, in reality his intellectual equal and companion, +and Sue in a quiet way had taken her as a model in her own effort toward +complete wifehood. + +During the evening, spent in a rapid exchange of opinions and ideas +between the two men, Sue had sat in silence. Once when he looked at her +Sam thought that he had surprised an annoyed look in her eyes and was +puzzled by it. During the remainder of the evening her eyes refused +to meet his and she looked instead at the floor, a flush mounting her +cheeks. + +At the door of the carriage Frank, Sue's coachman, stepped on the hem +of her gown and tore it. The tear was slight, the incident Sam thought +entirely unavoidable, and as much due to a momentary clumsiness on the +part of Sue as to the awkwardness of Frank. The man had for years been a +loyal servant and a devoted admirer of Sue's. + +Sam laughed and taking Sue by the arm started to help her in at the +carriage door. + +"Too much gown for an athlete," he said, pointlessly. + +In a flash Sue turned and faced the coachman. + +"Awkward brute," she said, through her teeth. + +Sam stood on the sidewalk dumb with astonishment as Frank turned and +climbed to his seat without waiting to close the carriage door. He felt +as he might have felt had he, as a boy, heard profanity from the lips +of his mother. The look in Sue's eyes as she turned them on Frank struck +him like a blow and in a moment his whole carefully built-up conception +of her and of her character had been shaken. He had an impulse to slam +the carriage door after her and walk home. + +They drove home in silence, Sam feeling as though he rode beside a new +and strange being. In the light of passing street lamps he could see her +face held straight ahead and her eyes staring stonily at the curtain in +front. He didn't want to reproach her; he wanted to take hold of her arm +and shake her. "I should like to take the whip from in front of Frank's +seat and give her a sound beating," he told himself. + +At the house Sue jumped out of the carriage and, running past him in at +the door, closed it after her. Frank drove off toward the stables and +when Sam went into the house he found Sue standing half way up the +stairs leading to her room and waiting for him. + +"I presume you do not know that you have been openly insulting me all +evening," she cried. "Your beastly talk there at the Grovers--it was +unbearable--who are these women? Why parade your past life before me?" + +Sam said nothing. He stood at the foot of the stairs and looked up at +her and then, turning, just as she, running up the stairs, slammed the +door of her own room, he went into the library. A wood fire burned in +the grate and he sat down and lighted his pipe. He did not try to think +the thing out. He felt that he was in the presence of a lie and that the +Sue who had lived in his mind and in his affections no longer existed, +that in her place there was this other woman, this woman who had +insulted her own servant and had perverted and distorted the meaning of +his talk during the evening. + +Sitting by the fire filling and refilling his pipe, Sam went carefully +over every word, gesture, and incident of the evening at the Grovers and +could get hold of no part of it that he thought might in fairness serve +as an excuse for the outburst. In the upper part of the house he could +hear Sue moving restlessly about and he had satisfaction in the thought +that her mind was punishing her for so strange a seizure. He and Grover +had perhaps been somewhat carried away, he told himself; they had talked +of marriage and its meaning and had both declared somewhat hotly against +the idea that the loss of virginity in women was in any sense a bar to +honourable marriage, but he had said nothing that he thought could have +been twisted into an insult to Sue or to Mrs. Grover. He had thought the +talk rather good and clearly thought out and had come out of the house +exhilarated and secretly preening himself with the thought that he had +talked unusually forcefully and well. In any event what had been said +had been said before in Sue's presence and he thought that he could +remember her having, in the past, expressed similar ideas with +enthusiasm. + +Hour after hour he sat in the chair before the dying fire. He dozed and +his pipe dropped from his hand and fell upon the stone hearth. A kind +of dumb misery and anger was in him as over and over endlessly his mind +kept reviewing the events of the evening. + +"What has made her think she can do that to me?" he kept asking himself. + +He remembered certain strange silences and hard looks from her eyes +during the past weeks, silences and looks that in the light of the +events of the evening became pregnant with meaning. + +"She has a temper, a beast of a temper. Why shouldn't she have been +square and told me?" he asked himself. + +The clock had struck three when the library door opened quietly and Sue, +clad in a dressing gown through which the new roundness of her lithe +little figure was plainly apparent, came into the room. She ran across +to him and putting her head down on his knee wept bitterly. + +"Oh, Sam!" she said, "I think I am going insane. I have been hating you +as I have not hated since I was an evil-tempered child. A thing I worked +years to suppress in me has come back. I have been hating myself and the +baby. For days I have been fighting the feeling in me, and now it has +come out and perhaps you have begun hating me. Can you love me again? +Will you ever forget the meanness and the cheapness of it? You and poor +innocent Frank--Oh, Sam, the devil was in me!" + +Reaching down, Sam took her into his arms and cuddled her like a child. +A story he had heard of the vagaries of women at such times came back to +him and was as a light illuminating the darkness of his mind. + +"I understand now," he said. "It is a part of the burden you carry for +us both." + +For some weeks after the outbreak at the carriage door events ran +smoothly in the McPherson house. One day as he stood in the stable door +Frank came round the corner of the house and, looking up sheepishly from +under his cap, said to Sam: "I understand about the missus. It is the +baby coming. We have had four of them at our house," and Sam, nodding +his head, turned and began talking rapidly of his plans to replace the +carriages with automobiles. + +But in the house, in spite of the clearing up of the matter of Sue's +ugliness at the Grovers, a subtle change had taken place in the +relationship of the two. Although they were together facing the first +of the events that were to be like ports-of-call in the great voyage of +their lives, they were not facing it with the same mutual understanding +and kindly tolerance with which they had faced smaller things in the +past--a disagreement over the method of shooting a rapid in a river or +the entertainment of an undesirable guest. The inclination to fits of +temper loosens and disarranges all the little wires of life. The +tune will not get itself played. One stands waiting for the discord, +strained, missing the harmony. It was so with Sam. He began feeling that +he must keep a check upon his tongue and that things of which they had +talked with great freedom six months earlier now annoyed and irritated +his wife when brought into an after-dinner discussion. To Sam, who, +during his life with Sue, had learned the joy of free, open talk upon +any subject that came into his mind and whose native interest in life +and in the motives of men and women had blossomed in the large leisure +and independence of the last year, this was trying. It was, he thought, +like trying to hold free and open communion with the people of an +orthodox family, and he fell into a habit of prolonged silences, a habit +that later, he found, once formed, unbelievably hard to break. + +One day in the office a situation arose that seemed to demand Sam's +presence in Boston on a certain date. For months he had been carrying +on a trade war with some of the eastern manufacturers in his line and an +opportunity for the settlement of the trouble in a way advantageous to +himself had, he thought, arisen. He wanted to handle the matter himself +and went home to explain to Sue. It was at the end of a day when nothing +had occurred to irritate her and she agreed with him that he should not +be compelled to trust so important a matter to another. + +"I am no child, Sam. I will take care of myself," she said, laughing. + +Sam wired his New York man asking him to make the arrangements for the +meeting in Boston and picked up a book to spend the evening reading +aloud to her. + +And then, coming home the next evening he found her in tears and when he +tried to laugh away her fears she flew into a black fit of anger and ran +out of the room. + +Sam went to the 'phone and called his New York man, thinking to instruct +him in regard to the conference in Boston and to give up his own plans +for the trip. When he had got his man on the wire, Sue, who had +been standing outside the door, rushed in and put her hand over the +mouthpiece of the 'phone. + +"Sam! Sam!" she cried. "Do not give up the trip! Scold me! Beat me! Do +anything, but do not let me go on making a fool of myself and destroying +your peace of mind! I shall be miserable if you stay at home because of +what I have said!" + +Over the 'phone came the insistent voice of Central and putting her hand +aside Sam talked to his man, letting the engagement stand and making +some detail of the conference answer as his need of calling. + +Again Sue was repentant and again after her tears they sat before the +fire until his train time, talking like lovers. + +To Buffalo in the morning came a wire from her. + +"Come back. Let business go. Cannot stand it," she had wired. + +While he sat reading the wire the porter brought another. + +"Please, Sam, pay no attention to any wire from me. I am all right and +only half a fool." + +Sam was irritated. "It is deliberate pettiness and weakness," he +thought, when an hour later the porter brought another wire demanding +his immediate return. "The situation calls for drastic action and +perhaps one good stinging reproof will stop it for all time." + +Going into the buffet car he wrote a long letter calling her attention +to the fact that a certain amount of freedom of action was due him, and +saying that he intended to act upon his own judgment in the future and +not upon her impulses. + +Having begun to write Sam went on and on. He was not interrupted, no +shadow crossed the face of his beloved to tell him he was hurting and +he said all that was in his mind to say. Little sharp reproofs that had +come into his mind but that had been left unsaid now got themselves said +and when he had dumped his overloaded mind into the letter he sealed and +mailed it at a passing station. + +Within an hour after the letter had left his hands Sam regretted it. He +thought of the little woman bearing the burden for them both, and things +Grover had told him of the unhappiness of women in her condition came +back to haunt his mind so that he wrote and sent off to her a wire +asking her not to read the letter he had mailed and assuring her that he +would hurry through the Boston conference and get back to her at once. + +When Sam returned he knew that in an evil moment Sue had opened and +read the letter sent from the train and was surprised and hurt by the +knowledge. The act seemed like a betrayal. He said nothing, going about +his work with a troubled mind and watching with growing anxiety her +alternate fits of white anger and fearful remorse. He thought her +growing worse daily and became alarmed for her health. + +And, then, after a talk with Grover he began to spend more and more time +with her, forcing her to take with him daily, long walks in the open +air. He tried valiantly to keep her mind fixed on cheerful things and +went to bed happy and relieved when a day ended that did not bring a +stormy passage between them. + +There were days during that period when Sam thought himself near +insanity. With a light in her grey eyes that was maddening Sue would +take up some minor thing, a remark he had made or a passage he had +quoted from some book, and in a dead, level, complaining tone would talk +of it until his head reeled and his fingers ached from the gripping of +his hands to keep control of himself. After such a day he would steal +off by himself and, walking rapidly, would try through pure physical +fatigue to force his mind to give up the remembrance of the persistent, +complaining voice. At times he would give way to fits of anger and +strew impotent oaths along the silent street, or, in another mood, would +mumble and talk to himself, praying for strength and courage to keep his +own head during the ordeal through which he thought they were passing +together. And when he returned from such a walk and from such a struggle +with himself it often occurred that he would find her waiting in the arm +chair before the fire in her room, her mind clear and her little face +wet with the tears of her repentance. + +And then the struggle ended. With Doctor Grover it had been arranged +that Sue should be taken to the hospital for the great event, and they +drove there hurriedly one night through the quiet streets, the recurring +pains gripping Sue and her hands clutching his. An exalted cheerfulness +had hold of them. Face to face with the actual struggle for the new +life Sue was transfigured. Her voice rang with triumph and her eyes +glistened. + +"I am going to do it," she cried; "my black fear is gone. I shall give +you a child--a man child. I shall succeed, my man Sam. You shall see. It +will be beautiful." + +When the pain gripped she gripped at his hand, and a spasm of +physical sympathy ran through him. He felt helpless and ashamed of his +helplessness. + +At the entrance to the hospital grounds she put her face down upon his +knees so that the hot tears ran through his hands. + +"Poor, poor old Sam, it has been horrible for you." + +At the hospital Sam walked up and down in the corridor through the +swinging doors at the end of which she had been taken. Every vestige of +regret for the trying months now lying behind had passed, and he paced +up and down the corridor feeling that he had come to one of those huge +moments when a man's brain, his grasp of affairs, his hopes and plans +for the future, all of the little details and trivialities of his life, +halt, and he waits anxious, breathless, expectant. He looked at a little +clock on a table at the end of the corridor, half expecting it to stop +also and wait with him. His marriage hour that had seemed so big and +vital seemed now, in the quiet corridor, with the stone floor and the +silent white-clad, rubber-shod nurses passing up and down and in the +presence of this greater event, to have shrunk enormously. He walked up +and down peering at the clock, looking at the swinging door and biting +at the stem of his empty pipe. + +And then through the swinging door came Grover. + +"We can get the child, Sam, but to get it we shall have to take a chance +with her. Do you want to do that? Do not wait. Decide." + +Sam sprang past him toward the door. + +"You bungler," he cried, and his voice rang through the long quiet +corridor. "You do not know what this means. Let me go." + +Doctor Grover, catching him by the arm, swung him about. The two men +stood facing each other. + +"You stay here," said the doctor, his voice remaining quiet and firm; "I +will attend to things. Your going in there would be pure folly now. Now +answer me--do you want to take the chance?" + +"No! No!" Sam shouted. "No! I want her--Sue--alive and well, back +through that door." + +A cold gleam came into his eyes and he shook his fist before the +doctor's face. + +"Do not try deceiving me about this. By God, I will----" + +Turning, Doctor Grover ran back through the swinging door leaving Sam +staring blankly at his back. A nurse, one whom he had seen in Doctor +Grover's office, came out of the door and taking his arm, walked beside +him up and down the corridor. Sam put his arm around her shoulder and +talked. An illusion that it was necessary to comfort her came to him. + +"Do not worry," he said. "She will be all right. Grover will take care +of her. Nothing can happen to little Sue." + +The nurse, a small, sweet-faced, Scotch woman, who knew and admired Sue, +wept. Some quality in his voice had touched the woman in her and the +tears ran in a little stream down her cheeks. Sam continued talking, the +woman's tears helping him to regain his grip upon himself. + +"My mother is dead," he said, an old sorrow revisiting him. "I wish that +you, like Mary Underwood, would be a new mother to me." + +When the time came that he could be taken to the room where Sue lay, his +self-possession had returned to him and his mind had begun blaming the +little dead stranger for the unhappiness of the past months and for the +long separation from what he thought was the real Sue. Outside the door +of the room into which she had been taken he stopped, hearing her voice, +thin and weak, talking to Grover. + +"Unfit--Sue McPherson unfit," said the voice, and Sam thought it was +filled with an infinite weariness. + +He ran through the door and dropped on his knees by her bed. She turned +her eyes to him smiling bravely. + +"The next time we'll make it," she said. + +The second child born to the young McPhersons arrived out of time. Again +Sam walked, this time through the corridor of his own house and without +the consoling presence of the sweet-faced Scotch woman, and again +he shook his head at Doctor Grover who came to him consoling and +reassuring. + +After the death of the second child Sue lay for months in bed. In his +arms, in her own room, she wept openly in the presence of Grover and the +nurses, crying out against her unfitness. For several days she refused +to see Colonel Tom, harbouring in her mind the notion that he was in +some way responsible for her physical inability to bear living children, +and when she got up from her bed, she remained for months white and +listless but grimly determined upon another attempt for the little life +she so wanted to feel in her arms. + +During the days of her carrying the second baby she had again the fierce +ugly attacks of temper that had shattered Sam's nerves, but having +learned to understand, he went quietly about his work, trying as far +as in him lay to close his ears to the stinging, hurtful things she +sometimes said; and the third time, it was agreed between them that +if they were again unsuccessful they would turn their minds to other +things. + +"If we do not succeed this time we might as well count ourselves through +with each other for good," she said one day in one of the fits of cold +anger that were a part of child bearing with her. + +That second night when Sam walked in the hospital corridor he was beside +himself. He felt like a young recruit called to face an unseen enemy and +to stand motionless and inactive in the presence of the singing death +that ran through the air. He remembered a story, told when he was a +child by a fellow soldier who had come to visit his father, of the +prisoners at Andersonville creeping in the darkness past armed sentries +to a little pool of stagnant water beyond the dead line, and felt that +he too was creeping unarmed and helpless in the neighbourhood of death. +In a conference at his house between the three some weeks before, it had +been decided, after tearful insistence on the part of Sue and a stand +on the part of Grover, who declared that he would not remain on the case +unless permitted to use his own judgment, that an operation should be +performed. + +"Take the chances that need be taken," Sam had said to Grover after the +conference; "she will never stand another defeat. Give her the child." + +In the corridor it seemed to Sam that hours had passed and still he +stood motionless waiting. His feet felt cold and he had the impression +that they were wet although the night was dry and a moon shone outside. +When, from a distant part of the hospital, a groan reached his ears he +shook with fright and had an inclination to cry out. Two young interns +clad in white passed. + +"Old Grover is doing a Caesarian section," said one of them; "he is +getting out of date. Hope he doesn't bungle it." + +In Sam's ears rang the remembrance of Sue's voice, the Sue who that +first time had gone into the room behind the swinging doors with the +determined smile on her face. He thought he could see again the white +face looking up from the wheeled cot on which they had taken her through +the door. + +"I am afraid, Dr. Grover--I am afraid I am unfit," he had heard her say +as the door closed. + +And then Sam did a thing for which he cursed himself the rest of his +life. On an impulse, and maddened by the intolerable waiting, he walked +to the swinging doors and, pushing them open, stepped into the operating +room where Grover was at work upon Sue. + +The room was long and narrow, with floors, walls and ceiling of white +cement. A great glaring light, suspended from the ceiling, threw +its rays directly down on a white-clad figure lying on a white metal +operating table. On the walls of the room were other glaring lights set +in shining glass reflectors. And, here and there through an intense, +expectant atmosphere, moved and stood silently a group of men and women, +faceless, hairless, with only their strangely vivid eyes showing through +the white masks that covered their faces. + +Sam, standing motionless by the door, looked about with wild, +half-seeing eyes. Grover worked rapidly and silently, taking from time +to time little shining instruments from a swinging table close at his +hand. The nurse standing beside him looked up toward the light and began +calmly threading a needle. And in a white basin on a little stand at +the side of the room lay the last of Sue's tremendous efforts toward new +life, the last of their dreams of the great family. + +Sam closed his eyes and fell. His head, striking against the wall, +aroused him and he struggled to his feet. + +Without stopping his work, Grover began swearing. + +"Damn it, man, get out of here." + +Sam groped with his hand for the door. One of the white-clad, ghoulish +figures started toward him. And then with his head reeling and his eyes +closed he backed through the door and, running along the corridor and +down a flight of broad stairs, reached the open air and darkness. He had +no doubt of Sue's death. + +"She is gone," he muttered, hurrying bareheaded along the deserted +streets. + +Through street after street he ran. Twice he came out upon the shores +of the lake, and, then turning, went back into the heart of the city +through streets bathed in the warm moonlight. Once he turned quickly at +a corner and stepping into a vacant lot stood behind a high board fence +as a policeman strolled along the street. Into his head came the idea +that he had killed Sue and that the blue-clad figure walking with heavy +tread on the stone pavement was seeking him to take him back to where +she lay white and lifeless. Again he stopped, before a little frame +drugstore on a corner, and sitting down on the steps before it cursed +God openly and defiantly like an angry boy defying his father. Some +instinct led him to look at the sky through the tangle of telegraph +wires overhead. + +"Go on and do what you dare!" he cried. "I will not follow you now. I +shall never try to find you after this." + +Presently he began laughing at himself for the instinct that had led +him to look at the sky and to shout out his defiance and, getting up, +wandered on. In his wanderings he came to a railroad track where a +freight train groaned and rattled over a crossing. When he came up to it +he jumped upon an empty coal car, falling as he climbed, and cutting his +face upon the sharp pieces of coal that lay scattered about the bottom +of the car. + +The train ground along slowly, stopping occasionally, the engine +shrieking hysterically. + +After a time he got out of the car and dropped to the ground. On all +sides of him were marshes, the long rank marsh grasses rolling and +tossing in the moonlight. When the train had passed he followed it, +walking stumblingly along. As he walked, following the blinking lights +at the end of the train, he thought of the scene in the hospital and +of Sue lying dead for that--that ping livid and shapeless on the table +under the lights. + +Where the solid ground ran up to the tracks Sam sat down under a tree. +Peace came over him. "This is the end of things," he thought, and +was like a tired child comforted by its mother. He thought of the +sweet-faced nurse who had walked with him that other time in the +corridor of the hospital and who had wept because of his fears, and +then of the night when he had felt the throat of his father between +his fingers in the squalid little kitchen. He ran his hands along +the ground. "Good old ground," he said. A sentence came into his mind +followed by the figure of John Telfer striding, stick in hand, along a +dusty road. "Here is spring come and time to plant out flowers in the +grass," he said aloud. His face felt swollen and sore from the fall in +the freight car and he lay down on the ground under a tree and slept. + +When he woke it was morning and grey clouds were drifting across the +sky. Within sight, down a road, a trolley car went past into the city. +Before him, in the midst of the marsh, lay a low lake, and a raised +walk, with boats tied to the posts on which it stood, ran down to the +water. He went down the walk, bathed his bruised face in the water, and +boarding a car went back into the city. + +In the morning air a new thought took possession of him. The wind ran +along a dusty road beside the car track, picking up little handfuls of +dust and playfully throwing them about. He had a strained, eager feeling +like some one listening for a faint call out of the distance. + +"To be sure," he thought, "I know what it is, it is my wedding day. I am +to marry Sue Rainey to-day." + +At the house he found Grover and Colonel Tom standing in the breakfast +room. Grover looked at his swollen, distorted face. His voice trembled. + +"Poor devil!" he said. "You have had a night!" + +Sam laughed and slapped Colonel Tom on the shoulder. + +"We will have to begin getting ready," he said. "The wedding is at ten. +Sue will be getting anxious." + +Grover and Colonel Tom took him by the arm and began leading him up the +stairs, Colonel Tom weeping like a woman. + +"Silly old fool," thought Sam. + +When, two weeks later, he again opened his eyes to consciousness Sue sat +beside his bed in a reclining chair, her little thin white hand in his. + +"Get the baby!" he cried, believing anything possible. "I want to see +the baby!" + +She laid her head down on the pillow. + +"It was gone when you saw it," she said, and put an arm about his neck. + +When the nurse came back she found them, their heads together upon the +pillow, crying weakly like two tired children. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The blow given the plan of life so carefully thought out and so eagerly +accepted by the young McPhersons threw them back upon themselves. For +several years they had been living upon a hill top, taking themselves +very seriously and more than a little preening themselves with the +thought that they were two very unusual and thoughtful people engaged +upon a worthy and ennobling enterprise. Sitting in their corner immersed +in admiration of their own purposes and in the thoughts of the vigorous, +disciplined, new life they were to give the world by the combined +efficiency of their two bodies and minds they were, at a word and a +shake of the head from Doctor Grover, compelled to remake the outline of +their future together. + +All about them the rush of life went on, vast changes were impending +in the industrial life of the people, cities were doubling and tripling +their population, a war was being fought, and the flag of their country +flew in the ports of strange seas, while American boys pushed their way +through the tangled jungles of strange lands carrying in their hands +Rainey-Whittaker rifles. And in a huge stone house, set in a broad +expanse of green lawns near the shores of Lake Michigan, Sam McPherson +sat looking at his wife, who in turn looked at him. He was trying, as +she also was trying, to adjust himself to the cheerful acceptance of +their new prospect of a childless life. + +Looking at Sue across the dinner table or seeing her straight, wiry body +astride a horse riding beside him through the parks, it seemed to Sam +unbelievable that a childless womanhood was ever to be her portion, and +more than once he had an inclination to venture again upon an effort for +the success of their hopes. But when he remembered her still white +face that night in the hospital, her bitter, haunting cry of defeat, +he turned with a shudder from the thought, feeling that he could not go +with her again through that ordeal; that he could not again allow her to +look forward through weeks and months toward the little life that never +came to lie upon her breast or to laugh up into her face. + +And yet Sam, son of that Jane McPherson who had won the admiration of +the men of Caxton by her ceaseless efforts to keep her family afloat and +clean handed, could not sit idly by, living upon the income of his own +and Sue's money. The stirring, forward-moving world called to him; he +looked about him at the broad, significant movements in business and +finance, at the new men coming into prominence and apparently finding a +way for the expression of new big ideas, and felt his youth stirring in +him and his mind reaching out to new projects and new ambitions. + +Given the necessity for economy and a hard long-drawn-out struggle for +a livelihood and competence, Sam could conceive of living his life +with Sue and deriving something like gratification from just her +companionship, and her partnership in his efforts--here and there during +the waiting years he had met men who had found such gratification--a +foreman in the shops or a tobacconist from whom he bought his +cigars--but for himself he felt that he had gone with Sue too far upon +another road to turn that way now with anything like mutual zeal or +interest. At bottom, his mind did not run strongly toward the idea of +the love of women as an end in life; he had loved, and did love, Sue +with something approaching religious fervour, but the fervour was more +than half due to the ideas she had given him and to the fact that with +him she was to have been the instrument for the realisation of those +ideas. He was a man with children in his loins and he had given up his +struggles for business eminence for the sake of preparing himself for +a kind of noble fatherhood of children, many children, strong children, +fit gifts to the world for two exceptionally favoured lives. In all +of his talks with Sue this idea had been present and dominant. He had +looked about him and in the arrogance of his youth and in the pride +of his good body and mind had condemned all childless marriages as a +selfish waste of good lives. With her he had agreed that such lives were +without point and purpose. Now he remembered that in the days of her +audacity and daring she had more than once expressed the hope that in +case of a childless issue to their marriage one or the other of them +would have the courage to cut the knot that tied them and venture into +another effort at right living at any cost. + +In the months after Sue's last recovery, and during the long evenings, +as they sat together or walked under the stars in the park, the thought +of these talks was often in Sam's mind and he found himself beginning +to speculate on her present attitude and to wonder how bravely she +would meet the idea of a separation. In the end he decided that no such +thought was in her mind, that face to face with the tremendous +actuality she clung to him with a new dependence, and a new need of his +companionship. The conviction of the absolute necessity of children as +a justification for a man and woman living together had, he thought, +burned itself more deeply into his brain than into hers; to him it +clung, coming back again and again to his mind, causing him to turn here +and there restlessly, making readjustments, seeking new light. The old +gods being dead he sought new gods. + +In the meantime he sat in his house facing his wife, losing himself in +the books recommended to him years before by Janet, thinking his own +thoughts. Often in the evening he would look up from his book or from +his preoccupied staring at the fire to find her eyes looking at him. + +"Talk, Sam; talk," she would say; "do not sit there thinking." + +Or at another time she would come to his room at night and putting her +head down on the pillow beside his would spend hours planning, weeping, +begging him to give her again his love, his old fervent, devoted love. + +This Sam tried earnestly and honestly to do, going with her for long +walks when the new call, the business had begun to make to him, would +have kept him at his desk, reading aloud to her in the evening, urging +her to shake off her old dreams and to busy herself with new work and +new interests. + +Through the days in the office he went in a kind of half stupor. An old +feeling of his boyhood coming back to him, it seemed to him, as it had +seemed when he walked aimlessly through the streets of Caxton after +the death of his mother, that there remained something to be done, an +accounting to be made. Even at his desk with the clatter of typewriters +in his ears and the piles of letters demanding his attention, his mind +slipped back to the days of his courtship with Sue and to those days in +the north woods when life had beat strong within him, and every young, +wild thing, every new growth renewed the dream that filled his being. +Sometimes on the street, or walking in the park with Sue, the cries of +children at play cut across the sombre dulness of his mind and he shrank +from the sound and a kind of bitter resentment took possession of him. +When he looked covertly at Sue she talked of other things, apparently +unconscious of his thoughts. + +Then a new phase of life presented itself. To his surprise he found +himself looking with more than passing interest at women in the streets, +and an old hunger for the companionship of strange women came back to +him, in some way coarsened and materialised. One evening at the theatre +a woman, a friend of Sue's and the childless wife of a business friend +of his own, sat beside him. In the darkness of the playhouse her +shoulder nestled down against his. In the excitement of a crisis on the +stage her hand slipped into his and her fingers clutched and held his +fingers. + +Animal desire seized and shook him, a feeling without sweetness, brutal, +making his eyes burn. When between the acts the theatre was again +flooded with light he looked up guiltily to meet another pair of eyes +equally filled with guilty hunger. A challenge had been given and +received. + +In their car, homeward bound, Sam put the thoughts of the woman away +from him and taking Sue in his arms prayed silently for some help +against he knew not what. + +"I think I will go to Caxton in the morning and have a talk with Mary +Underwood," he said. + +After his return from Caxton Sam set about finding some new interest to +occupy Sue's mind. He had spent an afternoon talking to Valmore, Freedom +Smith, and Telfer and thought there was a kind of flatness in their +jokes and in their ageing comments on each other. Then he had gone from +them for his talk with Mary. Half through the night they had talked, +Sam getting forgiveness for not writing and getting also a long friendly +lecture on his duty toward Sue. He thought she had in some way missed +the point. She had seemed to suppose that the loss of the children +had fallen singly upon Sue. She had not counted upon him, and he had +depended upon her doing just that. He had come as a boy to his mother +wanting to talk of himself and she had wept at the thought of the +childless wife and had told him how to set about making her happy. + +"Well, I will set about it," he thought on the train coming home; "I +will find for her this new interest and make her less dependent upon me. +Then I also will take hold anew and work out for myself a programme for +a way of life." + +One afternoon when he came home from the office he found Sue filled +indeed with a new idea. With glowing cheeks she sat beside him through +the evening and talked of the beauties of a life devoted to social +service. + +"I have been thinking things out," she said, her eyes shining. "We must +not allow ourselves to become sordid. We must keep to the vision. We +must together give the best in our lives and our fortunes to mankind. +We must make ourselves units in the great modern movements for social +uplift." + +Sam looked at the fire and a chill feeling of doubt ran through him. He +could not see himself as a unit in anything. His mind did not run out +toward the thought of being one of the army of philanthropists or rich +social uplifters he had met talking and explaining in the reading rooms +of clubs. No answering flame burned in his heart as it had burned +that evening by the bridle path in Jackson Park when she had expounded +another idea. But the thought of a need of new interest for her coming +to him, he turned to her smiling. + +"It sounds all right but I know nothing of such things," he said. + +After that evening Sue began to get a hold upon herself. The old fire +came back into her eyes and she went about the house with a smile +upon her face and talked through the evenings to her silent, attentive +husband of the life of usefulness, the full life. One day she told him +of her election to the presidency of a society for the rescue of fallen +women, and he began seeing her name in the newspapers in connection with +various charity and civic movements. At the house a new sort of men +and women began appearing at the dinner table; a strangely earnest, +feverish, half fanatical people, Sam thought, with an inclination toward +corsetless dresses and uncut hair, who talked far into the night and +worked themselves into a sort of religious zeal over what they called +their movement. Sam found them likely to run to startling statements, +noticed that they sat on the edges of their chairs when they talked, +and was puzzled by their tendency toward making the most revolutionary +statements without pausing to back them up. When he questioned a +statement made by one of these people, he came down upon him with a rush +that quite carried him away and then, turning to the others, looked +at them wisely like a cat that has swallowed a mouse. "Ask us another +question if you dare," their faces seemed to be saying, while their +tongues declared that they were but students of the great problem of +right living. + +With these new people Sam never made any progress toward real +understanding and friendship. For a time he tried honestly to get some +of their own fervent devotions to their ideas and to be impressed by +what they said of their love of man, even going with them to some of +their meetings, at one of which he sat among the fallen women gathered +in, and listened to a speech by Sue. + +The speech did not make much of a hit, the fallen women moving +restlessly about. A large woman, with an immense nose, did better. +She talked with a swift, contagious zeal that was very stirring, and, +listening to her, Sam was reminded of the evening when he sat before +another zealous talker in the church at Caxton and Jim Williams, the +barber, tried to stampede him into the fold with the lambs. While the +woman talked a plump little member of the _demi monde_ who sat beside +Sam wept copiously, but at the end of the speech he could remember +nothing of what had been said and he wondered if the weeping woman would +remember. + +To express his determination to continue being Sue's companion and +partner, Sam during one winter taught a class of young men at a +settlement house in the factory district of the west side. The class in +his hands was unsuccessful. He found the young men heavy and stupid with +fatigue after the day of labour in the shops and more inclined to fall +asleep in their chairs, or wander away, one at a time, to loaf and +smoke on a nearby corner, than to stay in the room listening to the man +reading or talking before them. + +When one of the young women workers came into the room, they sat up and +seemed for the moment interested. Once Sam heard a group of them +talking of these women workers on a landing in a darkened stairway. The +experience startled Sam and he dropped the class, admitting to Sue +his failure and his lack of interest and bowing his head before her +accusation of a lack of the love of men. + +Later by the fire in his own room he tried to draw for himself a moral +from the experience. + +"Why should I love these men?" he asked himself. "They are what I might +have been. Few of the men I have known have loved me and some of the +best and cleanest of them have worked vigorously for my defeat. Life is +a battle in which few men win and many are defeated and in which hate +and fear play their part with love and generosity. These heavy-featured +young men are a part of the world as men have made it. Why this protest +against their fate when we are all of us making more and more of them +with every turn of the clock?" + +During the next year, after the fiasco of the settlement house class, +Sam found himself drifting more and more rapidly away from Sue and her +new viewpoint of life. The growing gulf between them showed itself in a +thousand little household acts and impulses, and every time he looked at +her he thought her more apart from him and less a part of the real +life that went on within him. In the old days there had been something +intimate and familiar in her person and in her presence. She had seemed +like a part of him, like the room in which he slept or the coat he wore +on his back, and he had looked into her eyes as thoughtlessly and with +as little fear of what he might find there as he looked at his own +hands. Now when his eyes met hers they dropped, and one or the other of +them began talking hurriedly like a person who has a consciousness of +something he must conceal. + +Down town Sam took up anew his old friendship and intimacy with Jack +Prince, going with him to clubs and drinking places and often spending +evenings among the clever, money-wasting young men who laughed and made +deals and talked their way through life at Jack's side. Among these +young men a business associate of Jack's caught his attention and in a +few weeks an intimacy had sprung up between Sam and this man. + +Maurice Morrison, Sam's new friend, had been discovered by Jack Prince +working as a sub-editor on a country daily down the state. There was, +Sam thought, something of the Caxton dandy, Mike McCarthy, in the man, +combined with prolonged and fervent, although somewhat periodic attacks +of industry. In his youth he had written poetry and at one time had +studied for the ministry, and in Chicago, under Jack Prince, he had +developed into a money maker and led the life of a talented, rather +unscrupulous man of the world. He kept a mistress, often overdrank, and +Sam thought him the most brilliant and convincing talker he had ever +heard. As Jack Prince's assistant he had charge of the Rainey Company's +large advertising expenditure, and the two men being thrown often +together a mutual regard grew up between them. Sam believed him to be +without moral sense; he knew him to be able and honest and he found in +the association with him a fund of odd little sweetnesses of character +and action that lent an inexpressible charm to the person of his friend. + +It was through Morrison that Sam had his first serious misunderstanding +with Sue. One evening the brilliant young advertising man dined at the +McPhersons'. The table, as usual, was filled with Sue's new friends, +among them a tall, gaunt man who, with the arrival of the coffee, +began in a high-pitched, earnest voice to talk of the coming social +revolution. Sam looked across the table and saw a light dancing in +Morrison's eyes. Like a hound unleashed he sprang among Sue's friends, +tearing the rich to pieces, calling for the onward advance of the +masses, quoting odds and ends of Shelley and Carlyle, peering earnestly +up and down the table, and at the end quite winning the hearts of the +women by a defence of fallen women that stirred the blood of even his +friend and host. + +Sam was amused and a trifle annoyed. The whole thing was, he knew, no +more than a piece of downright acting with just the touch of sincerity +in it that was characteristic of the man but that had no depth or real +meaning. During the rest of the evening he watched Sue, wondering if she +too had fathomed Morrison and what she thought of his having taken the +role of star from the long gaunt man, who had evidently been booked +for that part and who sat at the table and wandered afterward among the +guests, annoyed and disconcerted. + +Late that night Sue came into his room and found him reading and smoking +by the fire. + +"Cheeky of Morrison, dimming your star," he said, looking at her and +laughing apologetically. + +Sue looked at him doubtfully. + +"I came in to thank you for bringing him," she said; "I thought him +splendid." + +Sam looked at her and for a moment was tempted to let the matter pass. +And then his old inclination to be always open and frank with her +asserted itself and he closed the book and rising stood looking down at +her. + +"The little beast was guying your crowd," he said, "but I do not want +him to guy you. Not that he wouldn't try. He has the audacity for +anything." + +A flush arose to her cheeks and her eyes gleamed. + +"That is not true, Sam," she said coldly. "You say that because you are +becoming hard and cold and cynical. Your friend Morrison talked from his +heart. It was beautiful. Men like you, who have a strong influence over +him, may lead him away, but in the end a man like that will come to give +his life to the service of society. You should help him; not assume an +attitude of unbelief and laugh at him." + +Sam stood upon the hearth smoking his pipe and looking at her. He was +thinking how easy it would have been in the first year after their +marriage to have explained Morrison. Now he felt that he was but making +a bad matter worse, but went on determined to stick to his policy of +being entirely honest with her. + +"Look here, Sue," he began quietly, "be a good sport. Morrison was +joking. I know the man. He is the friend of men like me because he +wants to be and because it pays him to be. He is a talker, a writer, a +talented, unscrupulous word-monger. He is making a big salary by +taking the ideas of men like me and expressing them better than we can +ourselves. He is a good workman and a generous, open-hearted fellow with +a lot of nameless charm in him, but a man of convictions he is not. He +could talk tears into the eyes of your fallen women, but he would be a +lot more likely to talk good women into their state." + +Sam put a hand upon her shoulder. + +"Be sensible and do not be offended," he went on: "take the fellow for +what he is and be glad for him. He hurts little and cheers a lot. He +could make a convincing argument in favour of civilisation's return to +cannibalism, but really, you know, he spends most of his time thinking +and writing of washing machines and ladies' hats and liver pills, and +most of his eloquence after all only comes down to 'Send for catalogue, +Department K' in the end." + +Sue's voice was colourless with passion when she replied. + +"This is unbearable. Why did you bring the fellow here?" + +Sam sat down and picked up his book. In his impatience he lied to her +for the first time since their marriage. + +"First, because I like him and second, because I wanted to see if +I couldn't produce a man who could outsentimentalise your socialist +friends," he said quietly. + +Sue turned and walked out of the room. In a way the action was final and +marked the end of understanding between them. Putting down his book +Sam watched her go and some feeling he had kept for her and that had +differentiated her from all other women died in him as the door closed +between them. Throwing the book aside he sprang to his feet and stood +looking at the door. + +"The old goodfellowship appeal is dead," he thought. "From now on we +will have to explain and apologise like two strangers. No more taking +each other for granted." + +Turning out the light he sat again before the fire to think his way +through the situation that faced him. He had no thought that she would +return. That last shot of his own had crushed the possibility of that. + +The fire was getting low in the grate and he did not renew it. He looked +past it toward the darkened windows and heard the hum of motor cars +along the boulevard below. Again he was the boy of Caxton hungrily +seeking an end in life. The flushed face of the woman in the theatre +danced before his eyes. He remembered with shame how he had, a few days +before, stood in a doorway and followed with his eyes the figure of a +woman who had lifted her eyes to him as they passed in the street. He +wished that he might go out of the house for a walk with John Telfer and +have his mind filled with eloquence of the standing corn, or sit at the +feet of Janet Eberly as she talked of books and of life. He got up and +turning on the lights began preparing for bed. + +"I know what I will do," he said, "I will go to work. I will do some +real work and make some more money. That's the place for me." + +And to work he went, real work, the most sustained and clearly +thought-out work he had done. For two years he was out of the house at +dawn for a long bracing walk in the fresh morning air, to be followed +by eight, ten and even fifteen hours in the office and shops; hours in +which he drove the Rainey Arms Company's organisation mercilessly +and, taking openly every vestige of the management out of the hands +of Colonel Tom, began the plans for the consolidation of the American +firearms companies that later put his name on the front pages of the +newspapers and got him the title of a Captain of Finance. + +There is a widespread misunderstanding abroad regarding the motives +of many of the American millionaires who sprang into prominence and +affluence in the days of change and sudden bewildering growth that +followed the close of the Spanish War. They were, many of them, not +of the brute trader type, but were, instead, men who thought and acted +quickly and with a daring and audacity impossible to the average mind. +They wanted power and were, many of them, entirely unscrupulous, but +for the most part they were men with a fire burning within them, men who +became what they were because the world offered them no better outlet +for their vast energies. + +Sam McPherson had been untiring and without scruples in the first hard, +quick struggle to get his head above the great unknown body of men there +in the city. He had turned aside from money getting when he heard what +he took to be a call to a better way of life. Now with the fires of +youth still in him and with the training and discipline that had come +from two years of reading, of comparative leisure and of thought, he was +prepared to give the Chicago business world a display of that tremendous +energy that was to write his name in the industrial history of the city +as one of the first of the western giants of finance. + +Going to Sue, Sam told her frankly of his plans. + +"I want a free hand in the handling of your stock in the company," he +said. "I cannot lead this new life of yours. It may help and sustain you +but it gets no hold on me. I want to be myself now and lead my own life +in my own way. I want to run the company, really run it. I cannot stand +idly by and let life go past. I am hurting myself and you standing here +looking on. Also I am in a kind of danger of another kind that I want to +avoid by throwing myself into hard, constructive work." + +Without question Sue signed the papers he brought her. A flash of her +old frankness toward him came back. + +"I do not blame you, Sam," she said, smiling bravely. "Things have not +gone right, as we both know, but if we cannot work together at least let +us not hurt each other." + +When Sam returned to give himself again to affairs, the country was just +at the beginning of the great wave of consolidation which was finally +to sweep all of the financial power of the country into a dozen pairs +of competent and entirely efficient hands. With the sure instinct of the +born trader Sam had seen this movement coming and had studied it. Now he +began to act. Going to that same swarthy-faced lawyer who had drawn +the contract for him to secure control of the medical student's twenty +thousand dollars and who had jokingly invited him to become one of a +band of train robbers, he told him of his plans to begin working toward +a consolidation of all the firearms companies of the country. + +Webster wasted no time in joking now. He laid out the plans, adjusted +and readjusted them to suit Sam's shrewd suggestions, and when a fee was +mentioned shook his head. + +"I want in on this," he said. "You will need me. I am made for this game +and have been waiting for a chance to get at it. Just count me in as one +of the promoters if you will." + +Sam nodded his head. Within a week he had formed a pool of his own +company's stock controlling, as he thought, a safe majority and had +begun working to form a similar pool in the stock of his only big +western rival. + +This last job was not an easy one. Lewis, the Jew, had been making +constant headway in that company just as Sam had made headway in the +Rainey Company. He was a money maker, a sales manager of rare ability, +and, as Sam knew, a planner and executor of business coups of the first +class. + +Sam did not want to deal with Lewis. He had respect for the man's +ability in driving sharp bargains and felt that he would like to have +the whip in his own hands when it came to the point of dealing with him. +To this end he began visiting bankers and the men who were head of big +western trust companies in Chicago and St. Louis. He went about his work +slowly, feeling his way and trying to get at each man by some effective +appeal, buying the use of vast sums of money by a promise of common +stock, the bait of a big active bank account, and, here and there, by +the hint of a directorship in the big new consolidated company. + +For a time the project moved slowly; indeed there were weeks and months +when it did not appear to move at all. Working in secret and with +extreme caution Sam encountered many discouragements and went home in +the evening day after day to sit among Sue's guests with a mind filled +with his own plans and with an indifferent ear turned to the talk +of revolution, social unrest, and the new class consciousness of the +masses, that rattled and crackled up and down his dinner table. +He thought that it must be trying to Sue. He was so evidently not +interested in her interests. At the same time he thought that he was +working toward what he wanted out of life and went to bed at night +believing that he was finding, and would find, a kind of peace in just +thinking clearly along one line day after day. + +One day Webster, who had wanted to be in on the deal, came to Sam's +office and gave his project its first great boost toward success. He, +like Sam, thought he saw clearly the tendencies of the times, and was +greedy for the block of common stock that Sam had promised should come +to him with the completion of the enterprise. + +"You are not using me," he said, sitting down before Sam's desk. "What +is blocking the deal?" + +Sam began to explain and when he had finished Webster laughed. + +"Let's get at Tom Edwards of the Edward Arms Company direct," he said, +and then, leaning over the desk, "Edwards is a vain little peacock and a +second rate business man," he declared emphatically. "Get him afraid and +then flatter his vanity. He has a new wife with blonde hair and big soft +blue eyes. He wants prominence. He is afraid to venture upon big things +himself but is hungry for the reputation and gain that comes through big +deals. Use the method the Jew has used; show him what it means to +the yellow-haired woman to be the wife of the president of the big +consolidated Arms Company. THE EDWARDS CONSOLIDATED, eh? Get at Edwards. +Bluff him and flatter him and he is your man." + +Sam wondered. Edwards was a small grey-haired man of sixty with +something dry and unresponsive about him. Being a silent man, he had +created an impression of remarkable shrewdness and ability. After a +lifetime spent in hard labour and in the practice of the most rigid +economy he had come up to wealth, and had got into the firearms business +through Lewis, and it was counted one of the brightest stars in that +brilliant Hebrew's crown that he had been able to lead Edwards with him +in his daring and audacious handling of the company's affairs. + +Sam looked at Webster across the desk and thought of Tom Edwards as the +figurehead of the firearms trust. + +"I was saving the frosting on the cake for my own Tom," he said; "it was +a thing I wanted to hand the colonel." + +"Let us see Edwards this evening," said Webster dryly. + +Sam nodded, and late that night made the deal that gave him control of +the two important western companies and put him in position to move +on the eastern companies with every prospect of complete success. To +Edwards he went with an exaggerated report of the support he had +already got for his project, and having frightened him offered him +the presidency of the new company and promised that it should be +incorporated under the name of The Edwards Consolidated Firearms Company +of America. + +The eastern companies fell quickly. With Webster Sam tried on them the +old dodge of telling each that the other two had agreed to come in, and +it worked. + +With the coming in of Edwards and the options given by the eastern +companies Sam began to get also the support of the LaSalle Street +bankers. The firearms trust was one of the few big consolidations +managed wholly in the west, and after two or three of the bankers had +agreed to help finance Sam's plan the others began asking to be taken +into the underwriting syndicate he and Webster had formed. Within thirty +days after the closing of the deal with Tom Edwards Sam felt that he was +ready to act. + +For several months Colonel Tom had known something of the plans Sam had +on foot, and had made no protest. He had in fact given Sam to understand +that his stock would be voted with Sue's, controlled by Sam, and with +the stock of the other directors who knew of and hoped to share in the +profits of Sam's deal. The old gunmaker had all of his life believed +that the other American firearms companies were but shadows destined to +disappear before the rising sun of the Rainey Company, and thought of +Sam's project as an act of providence to further this desirable end. + +At the moment of his acquiescence in Webster's plan, for landing Tom +Edwards, Sam had a moment of doubt, and now, with the success of his +project in sight, he began to wonder how the blustering old man would +look upon Edwards as the titular head of the big company and upon the +name of Edwards in the title of the company. + +For two years Sam had seen little of the colonel, who had given up all +pretence to an active part in the management of the business and who, +finding Sue's new friends disconcerting, seldom appeared at the house, +living at the clubs, playing billiards all day long, or sitting in the +club windows boasting to chance listeners of his part in the building of +the Rainey Arms Company. + +With a mind filled with doubt Sam went home and put the matter before +Sue. She was dressed and ready for an evening at the theatre with a +party of friends and the talk was brief. + +"He will not mind," she said indifferently. "Go ahead and do what you +want to do." + +Sam rode back to the office and called his lieutenants about him. He +felt that the thing might as well be done and over, and with the options +in his hands, and the ability he thought he had to control his own +company, he was ready to come out into the open and get the deal cleaned +up. + +The morning papers that carried the story of the proposed big new +consolidation of firearms companies carried also an almost life-size +halftone of Colonel Tom Rainey, a slightly smaller one of Tom Edwards, +and grouped about these, small pictures of Sam, Lewis, Prince, Webster, +and several of the eastern men. By the size of the half-tone, Sam, +Prince, and Morrison had tried to reconcile Colonel Tom to Edwards' +name in the title of the new company and to Edwards' coming election +as president. The story also played up the past glories of the Rainey +Company and its directing genius, Colonel Tom. One phrase, written by +Morrison, brought a smile to Sam's lips. + +"This grand old patriarch of American business, retired now from active +service, is like a tired giant, who, having raised a brood of young +giants, goes into his castle to rest and reflect and to count the scars +won in many a hard-fought battle." + +Morrison laughed as he read it aloud. + +"It ought to get the colonel," he said, "but the newspaper man who +prints it should be hung." + +"They will print it all right," said Jack Prince. + +And they did print it; going from newspaper office to newspaper office +Prince and Morrison saw to that, using their influence as big buyers +of advertising space and even insisting upon reading proof on their own +masterpiece. + +But it did not work. Early the next morning Colonel Tom appeared at the +offices of the arms company with blood in his eye, and swore that the +consolidation should not be put through. For an hour he stormed up +and down in Sam's office, his outbursts of wrath varied by periods +of childlike pleading for the retention of the name and glory of the +Raineys. When Sam shook his head and went with the old man to the +meeting that was to pass upon his action and sell the Rainey Company, he +knew that he had a fight on his hands. + +The meeting was a stormy one. Sam made a talk telling what had been +done and Webster, voting some of Sam's proxies, made a motion that Sam's +offer for the old company be accepted. + +And then Colonel Tom fired his guns. Walking up and down in the room +before the men, sitting at a long table or in chairs tilted against the +walls, he began talking with all of his old flamboyant pomposity of the +past glories of the Rainey Company. Sam watched him quietly thinking of +the exhibition as something detached and apart from the business of the +meeting. He remembered a question that had come into his head when he +was a schoolboy and had got his first peep into a school history. There +had been a picture of Indians at the war dance and he had wondered why +they danced before rather than after battle. Now his mind answered the +question. + +"If they had not danced before they might never have got the chance," he +thought, and smiled to himself. + +"I call upon you men here to stick to the old colours," roared the +colonel, turning and making a direct attack upon Sam. "Do not let this +ungrateful upstart, this son of a drunken village housepainter, that I +picked up from among the cabbages of South Water Street, win you away +from your loyalty to the old leader. Do not let him steal by trickery +what we have won only by years of effort." + +The colonel, leaning on the table, glared about the room. Sam felt +relieved and glad of the direct attack. + +"It justifies what I am going to do," he thought. + +When Colonel Tom had finished Sam gave a careless glance at the old +man's red face and trembling fingers. He had no doubt that the outburst +of eloquence had fallen upon deaf ears and without comment put Webster's +motion to the vote. + +To his surprise two of the new employé directors voted their stock with +Colonel Tom's, and a third man, voting his own stock as well as that of +a wealthy southside real estate man, did not vote. On a count the stock +represented stood deadlocked and Sam, looking down the table, raised his +eyebrows to Webster. + +"Move we adjourn for twenty-four hours," snapped Webster, and the motion +carried. + +Sam looked at a paper lying before him on the table. During the count +of the vote he had been writing over and over on the sheet of paper this +sentence. + +"The best men spend their lives seeking truth." + +Colonel Tom walked out of the room like a conqueror, declining to speak +to Sam as he passed, and Sam looked down the table at Webster and made a +motion with his head toward the man who had not voted. + +Within an hour Sam's fight was won. Pouncing upon the man representing +the stock of the south-side investor, he and Webster did not go out of +the room until they had secured absolute control of the Rainey Company +and the man who had refused to vote had put twenty-five thousand dollars +into his pocket. The two employeé directors Sam marked for slaughter. +Then after spending the afternoon and early evening with the +representatives of the eastern companies and their attorneys he drove +home to Sue. + +It was past nine o'clock when his car stopped before the house and, +going at once to his room, he found Sue sitting before his fire, her +arms thrown above her head and her eyes staring at the burning coals. + +As Sam stood in the doorway looking at her a wave of resentment swept +over him. + +"The old coward," he thought, "he has brought our fight here to her." + +Hanging up his coat he filled his pipe and drawing up a chair sat beside +her. For five minutes Sue sat staring into the fire. When she spoke +there was a touch of hardness in her voice. + +"When everything is said, Sam, you do owe a lot to father," she +observed, refusing to look at him. + +Sam said nothing and she went on. + +"Not that I think we made you, father and I. You are not the kind of man +that people make or unmake. But, Sam, Sam, think what you are doing. He +has always been a fool in your hands. He used to come home here when you +were new with the company and talk of what he was doing. He had a whole +new set of ideas and phrases; all that about waste and efficiency and +orderly working toward a definite end. It did not fool me. I knew the +ideas, and even the phrases he used to express them, were not his and +I was not long finding out they were yours, that it was simply you +expressing yourself through him. He is a big helpless child, Sam, and +he is old. He hasn't much longer to live. Do not be hard, Sam. Be +merciful." + +Her voice did not tremble but tears ran down her rigid face and her +expressive hands clutched at her dress. + +"Can nothing change you? Must you always have your own way?" she added, +still refusing to look at him. + +"It is not true, Sue, that I always want my own way, and people do +change me; you have changed me," he said. + +She shook her head. + +"No, I have not changed you. I found you hungry for something and you +thought I could feed it. I gave you an idea that you took hold of and +made your own. I do not know where I got it, from some book or hearing +some one talk, I suppose. But it belonged to you. You built it and +fostered it in me and coloured it with your own personality. It is your +idea to-day. It means more to you than all this firearms trust that the +papers are full of." + +She turned to look at him, and put out her hand and laid it in his. + +"I have not been brave," she said. "I am standing in your way. I have +had a hope that we would get back to each other. I should have freed you +but I hadn't the courage, I hadn't the courage. I could not give up the +dream that some day you would really take me back to you." + +Getting out of her chair she dropped to her knees and putting her head +in his lap, shook with sobs. Sam sat stroking her hair. Her agitation +was so great that her muscular little back shook with it. + +Sam looked past her at the fire and tried to think clearly. He was not +greatly moved by her agitation, but with all his heart he wanted to +think things out and get at the right and the honest thing to do. + +"It is a time of big things," he said slowly and with an air of one +explaining to a child. "As your socialists say, vast changes are going +on. I do not believe that your socialists really sense what these +changes mean, and I am not sure that I do or that any man does, but +I know they mean something big and I want to be in them and a part of +them; all big men do; they are struggling like chicks in the shell. Why, +look here! What I am doing has to be done and if I do not do it another +man will. The colonel has to go. He will be swept aside. He belongs to +something old and outworn. Your socialists, I believe, call it the age +of competition." + +"But not by us, not by you, Sam," she plead. "After all, he is my +father." + +A stern look came into Sam's eyes. + +"It does not ring right, Sue," he said coldly; "fathers do not mean much +to me. I choked my own father and threw him into the street when I was +only a boy. You knew about that. You heard of it when you went to find +out about me that time in Caxton. Mary Underwood told you. I did it +because he lied and believed in lies. Do not your friends say that the +individual who stands in the way should be crushed?" + +She sprang to her feet and stood before him. + +"Do not quote that crowd," she burst out. "They are not the real thing. +Do you suppose I do not know that? Do I not know that they come here +because they hope to get hold of you? Haven't I watched them and seen +the look on their faces when you have not come or have not listened to +their talk? They are afraid of you, all of them. That's why they talk so +bitterly. They are afraid and ashamed that they are afraid." + +"Like the workers in the shop?" he asked, musingly. + +"Yes, like that, and like me since I failed in my part of our lives and +had not the courage to get out of the way. You are worth all of us and +for all our talk we shall never succeed or begin to succeed until we +make men like you want what we want. They know that and I know it." + +"And what do you want?" + +"I want you to be big and generous. You can be. Failure cannot hurt you. +You and men like you can do anything. You can even fail. I cannot. None +of us can. I cannot put my father to that shame. I want you to accept +failure." + +Sam got up and taking her by the arm led her to the door. At the door he +turned her about and kissed her on the lips like a lover. + +"All right, Sue girl, I will do it," he said, and pushed her through the +door. "Now let me sit down by myself and think things out." + +It was a night in September and a whisper of the coming frost was in the +air. He threw up the window and took long breaths of the sharp air and +listened to the rumble of the elevated road in the distance. Looking +up the boulevard he saw the lights of the cyclists making a glistening +stream that flowed past the house. A thought of his new motor car and +of all of the wonder of the mechanical progress of the world ran through +his mind. + +"The men who make machines do not hesitate," he said to himself; "even +though a thousand fat-hearted men stood in their way they would go on." + +A line of Tennyson's came into his mind. + +"And the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue," he quoted, +thinking of an article he had read predicting the coming of airships. + +He thought of the lives of the workers in steel and iron and of the +things they had done and would do. + +"They have," he thought, "freedom. Steel and iron do not run home to +carry the struggle to women sitting by the fire." + +He walked up and down the room. + +"Fat old coward. Damned fat old coward," he muttered over and over to +himself. + +It was past midnight when he got into bed and began trying to quiet +himself for sleep. In his dreams he saw a fat man with a chorus girl +hanging to his arm kicking his head about a bridge above a swiftly +flowing stream. + +When he got down to the breakfast room the next morning Sue had gone. By +his plate he found a note saying that she had gone for Colonel Tom +and would take him to the country for the day. He walked to the office +thinking of the incapable old man who, in the name of sentiment, had +beaten him in what he thought the big enterprise of his life. + +At his desk he found a message from Webster. "The old turkey cock has +fled," it said; "we should have saved the twenty-five thousand." + +On the phone Webster told Sam of an early visit to the club to see +Colonel Tom and that the old man had left the city, going to the country +for the day. It was on Sam's lips to tell of his changed plans but he +hesitated. + +"I will see you at your office in an hour," he said. + +Outside again in the open air Sam walked and thought of his promise. +Down by the lake he went to where the railroad with the lake beyond +stopped him. Upon the old wooden bridge looking over the track and down +to the water he stood as he had stood at other crises in his life and +thought over the struggle of the night before. In the clear morning air, +with the roar of the city behind him and the still waters of the lake +in front, the tears, and the talk with Sue seemed but a part of the +ridiculous and sentimental attitude of her father, and the promise given +her insignificant and unfairly won. He reviewed the scene carefully, the +talk and the tears and the promise given as he led her to the door. It +all seemed far away and unreal like some promise made to a girl in his +boyhood. + +"It was never a part of all this," he said, turning and looking at the +towering city before him. + +For an hour he stood on the wooden bridge. He thought of Windy McPherson +putting the bugle to his lips in the streets of Caxton and again there +sounded in his ears the roaring laugh of the crowd; again he lay in the +bed beside Colonel Tom in that northern city and saw the moon rising +over the round paunch and heard the empty chattering talk of love. + +"Love," he said, still looking toward the city, "is a matter of truth, +not lies and pretence." + +Suddenly it seemed to him that if he went forward truthfully he should +get even Sue back again some time. His mind lingered over the thoughts +of the loves that come to a man in the world, of Sue in the wind-swept +northern woods and of Janet in her wheel-chair in the little room where +the cable cars ran rumbling under the window. And he thought of other +things, of Sue reading papers culled out of books before the fallen +women in the little State Street hall, of Tom Edwards with his new wife +and his little watery eyes, of Morrison and the long-fingered socialist +fighting over words at his table. And then pulling on his gloves he +lighted a cigar and went back through the crowded streets to his office +to do the thing he had determined on. + +At the meeting that afternoon the project went through without a +dissenting voice. Colonel Tom being absent, the two employé directors +voted with Sam with almost panicky haste as Sam looking across at the +well-dressed, cool-headed Webster, laughed and lighted a fresh cigar. +And then he voted the stock Sue had intrusted to him for the project, +feeling that in doing so he was cutting, perhaps for all time, the knot +that bound them. + +With the completion of the deal Sam stood to win five million dollars, +more money than Colonel Tom or any of the Raineys had ever controlled, +and had placed himself in the eyes of the business men of Chicago and +New York where before he had placed himself in the eyes of Caxton and +South Water Street. Instead of another Windy McPherson failing to blow +his bugle before the waiting crowd, he was still the man who made good, +the man who achieved, the kind of man of whom America boasts before the +world. + +He did not see Sue again. When the news of his betrayal reached her she +went off east taking Colonel Tom with her, and Sam closed the house, +even sending a man there for his clothes. To her eastern address, got +from her attorney, he wrote a brief note offering to make over to her or +to Colonel Tom his entire winnings from the deal and closed it with the +brutal declaration, "At the end I could not be an ass, even for you." + +To this note Sam got a cold, brief reply telling him to dispose of her +stock in the company and of that belonging to Colonel Tom, and naming an +eastern trust company to receive the money. With Colonel Tom's help she +had made a careful estimate of the values of their holdings at the +time of consolidation and refused flatly to accept a penny beyond that +amount. + +Sam felt that another chapter of his life was closed. Webster, Edwards, +Prince, and the eastern men met and elected him chairman of the board of +directors of the new company and the public bought eagerly the river +of common stock he turned upon the market, Prince and Morrison doing +masterful work in the moulding of public opinion through the press. The +first board meeting ended with a dinner at which wine flowed in rivulets +and Edwards, getting drunk, stood up at his place and boasted of the +beauty of his young wife. And Sam, at his desk in his new offices in the +Rookery, settled down grimly to the playing of his role as one of the +new kings of American business. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The story of Sam's life there in Chicago for the next several years +ceases to be the story of a man and becomes the story of a type, a +crowd, a gang. What he and the group of men surrounding him and making +money with him did in Chicago, other men and other groups of men have +done in New York, in Paris, in London. Coming into power with the +great expansive wave of prosperity that attended the first McKinley +administration, these men went mad of money making. They played +with great industrial institutions and railroad systems like excited +children, and a man of Chicago won the notice and something of the +admiration of the world by his willingness to bet a million dollars on +the turn of the weather. In the years of criticism and readjustment that +followed this period of sporadic growth, writers have told with great +clearness how the thing was done, and some of the participants, captains +of industry turned penmen, Caesars become ink-slingers, have bruited the +story to an admiring world. + +Given the time, the inclination, the power of the press, and the +unscrupulousness, the thing that Sam McPherson and his followers did in +Chicago in not difficult. Advised by Webster and the talented Prince +and Morrison to handle his publicity work, he rapidly unloaded his huge +holdings of common stock upon an eager public, keeping for himself the +bonds which he hypothecated at the banks to increase his working capital +while continuing to control the company. When the common stock was +unloaded, he, with a group of fellow spirits, began an attack upon it +through the stock market and in the press, and bought it again at a +low figure, holding it ready to unload when the public should have +forgotten. + +The annual advertising expenditure of the firearms trust ran into +millions and Sam's hold upon the press of the country was almost +unbelievably strong. Morrison rapidly developed unusual daring and +audacity in using this instrument and making it serve Sam's ends. He +suppressed facts, created illusions, and used the newspapers as a whip +to crack at the heels of congressmen, senators, and legislators, of the +various states, when such matters as appropriation for firearms came +before them. + +And Sam, who had undertaken the consolidation of the firearms companies, +having a dream of himself as a great master in that field, a sort of +American Krupp, rapidly awoke from the dream to take the bigger chances +for gain in the world of speculation. Within a year he dropped Edwards +as head of the firearms trust and in his place put Lewis, with Morrison +as secretary and manager of sales. Guided by Sam these two, like the +little drygoods merchant of the old Rainey Company, went from capital +to capital and from city to city making contracts, influencing news, +placing advertising contracts where they would do the most good, fixing +men. + +And in the meantime Sam, with Webster, a banker named Crofts who had +profited largely in the firearms merger, and sometimes Morrison or +Prince, began a series of stock raids, speculations, and manipulations +that attracted country-wide attention, and became known to the newspaper +reading world as the McPherson Chicago crowd. They were in oil, +railroads, coal, western land, mining, timber, and street railways. One +summer Sam, with Prince, built, ran to a profit, and sold to advantage +a huge amusement park. Through his head day after day marched columns +of figures, ideas, schemes, more and more spectacular opportunities +for gain. Some of the enterprises in which he engaged, while because of +their size they seemed more dignified, were of reality of a type with +the game smuggling of his South Water Street days, and in all of his +operations it was his old instinct for bargains and for the finding of +buyers together with Webster's ability for carrying through questionable +deals that made him and his followers almost constantly successful in +the face of opposition from the more conservative business and financial +men of the city. + +Again Sam led a new life, owning running horses at the tracks, +memberships in many clubs, a country house in Wisconsin, and shooting +preserves in Texas. He drank steadily, played poker for big stakes, kept +in the public prints, and day after day led his crew upon the high seas +of finance. He did not dare think and in his heart he was sick of it. +Sick to the soul, so that when thought came to him he got out of his bed +to seek roistering companions or, getting pen and paper, sat for hours +figuring out new and more daring schemes for money making. The great +forward movement in modern industry of which he had dreamed of being a +part had for him turned out to be a huge meaningless gamble with loaded +dice against a credulous public. With his followers he went on day after +day doing deeds without thought. Industries were organised and launched, +men employed and thrown out of employment, towns wrecked by the +destruction of an industry and other towns made by the building of other +industries. At a whim of his a thousand men began building a city on an +Indiana sand hill, and at a wave of his hand another thousand men of an +Indiana town sold their homes, with the chicken houses in the back-yards +and vines trained by the kitchen doors, and rushed to buy sections +of the hill plotted off for them. He did not stop to discuss with his +followers the meaning of the things he did. He told them of the profits +to be made and then, having done the thing, he went with them to drink +in bar rooms and to spend the evening or afternoon singing songs, +visiting his stable of runners or, more often, sitting silently about +the card table playing for high stakes. Making millions through the +manipulation of the public during the day, he sometimes sat half the +night struggling with his companions for the possession of thousands. + +Lewis, the Jew, the only one of Sam's companions who had not followed +him in his spectacular money making, stayed in the office of the +firearms company and ran it like the scientific able man of business he +was. While Sam remained chairman of the board of the company and had an +office, a desk, and the name of leadership there, he let Lewis run the +place, and spent his own time upon the stock exchange or in some corner +with Webster and Crofts planning some new money making raid. + +"You have the better of it, Lewis," he said one day in a reflective +mood; "you thought I had cut the ground from under you when I got Tom +Edwards, but I only set you more firmly in a larger place." + +He made a movement with his hand toward the large general offices with +the rows of busy clerks and the substantial look of work being done. + +"I might have had the work you are doing. I planned and schemed with +that end in view," he added, lighting a cigar and going out at the door. + +"And the money hunger got you," laughed Lewis, looking after him, "the +hunger that gets Jews and Gentiles and all who feed it." + +One might have come upon the McPherson Chicago crowd about the old +Chicago stock exchange on any day during those years, Crofts, tall, +abrupt, and dogmatic; Morrison, slender, dandified, and gracious; +Webster, well-dressed, suave, gentlemanly, and Sam, silent, restless, +and often morose and ugly. Sometimes it seemed to Sam that they were +all unreal, himself and the men with him. He watched his companions +cunningly. They were constantly posing before the passing crowd of +brokers and small speculators. Webster, coming up to him on the floor of +the exchange, would tell him of a snowstorm raging outside with the air +of a man parting with a long-cherished secret. His companions went from +one to the other vowing eternal friendships, and then, keeping spies +upon each other, they hurried to Sam with tales of secret betrayals. +Into any deal proposed by him they went eagerly, although sometimes +fearfully, and almost always they won. And with Sam they made millions +through the manipulation of the firearms company, and the Chicago and +Northern Lake Railroad which he controlled. + +In later years Sam looked back upon it all as a kind of nightmare. It +seemed to him that never during that period had he lived or thought +sanely. The great financial leaders that he saw were not, he thought, +great men. Some of them, like Webster, were masters of craft, or, like +Morrison, of words, but for the most part they were but shrewd, greedy +vultures feeding upon the public or upon each other. + +In the meantime Sam was rapidly degenerating. His paunch became +distended, and his hands trembled in the morning. Being a man of +strong appetites, and having a determination to avoid women, he almost +constantly overdrank and overate, and in the leisure hours that came to +him he hurried eagerly from place to place, avoiding thought, avoiding +sane quiet talk, avoiding himself. + +All of his companions did not suffer equally. Webster seemed made for +the life, thriving and expanding under it, putting his winnings steadily +aside, going on Sunday to a suburban church, avoiding the publicity +connecting his name with race horses and big sporting events that Crofts +sought and to which Sam submitted. One day Sam and Crofts caught him in +an effort to sell them out to a group of New York bankers in a mining +deal and turned the trick on him instead, whereupon he went off to New +York to become a respectable big business man and the friend of senators +and philanthropists. + +Crofts was a man with chronic domestic troubles, one of those men who +begin each day by cursing their wives before their associates and yet +continue living with them year after year. There was a kind of rough +squareness in the man, and after the completion of a successful deal +he would be as happy as a boy, pounding men on the back, shaking with +laughter, throwing money about, making crude jokes. After Sam left +Chicago he finally divorced his wife and married an actress from the +vaudeville stage and after losing two-thirds of his fortune in an effort +to capture control of a southern railroad, went to England and, coached +by the actress wife, developed into an English country gentleman. + +And Sam was a man sick. Day after day he went on drinking more and more +heavily, playing for bigger and bigger stakes, allowing himself less +and less thought of himself. One day he received a long letter from John +Telfer telling of the sudden death of Mary Underwood and berating him +for his neglect of her. + +"She was ill for a year and without an income," wrote Telfer. Sam +noticed that the man's hand had begun to tremble. "She lied to me and +told me you had sent her money, but now that she is dead I find that +though she wrote you she got no answer. Her old aunt told me." + +Sam put the letter into his pocket and going into one of his clubs began +drinking with a crowd of men he found idling there. He had paid little +attention to his correspondence for months. No doubt the letter from +Mary had been received by his secretary and thrown aside with the +letters of thousands of other women, begging letters, amorous letters, +letters directed at him because of his wealth and the prominence given +his exploits by the newspapers. + +After wiring an explanation and mailing a check the size of which filled +John Telfer with admiration, Sam with a half dozen fellow roisterers +spent the late afternoon and evening going from saloon to saloon through +the south side. When he got to his apartments late that night, his head +was reeling and his mind filled with distorted memories of drinking men +and women and of himself standing on a table in some obscure drinking +place and calling upon the shouting, laughing hangers-on of his crowd of +rich money spenders to think and to work and to seek Truth. + +He went to sleep in his chair, his mind filled with the dancing faces of +dead women, Mary Underwood and Janet and Sue, tear-stained faces calling +to him. When he awoke and shaved he went out into the street and to +another down-town club. + +"I wonder if Sue is dead, too," he muttered, remembering his dream. + +At the club he was called to the telephone by Lewis, who asked him to +come at once to his office at the Edwards Consolidated. When he +got there he found a wire from Sue. In a moment of loneliness and +despondency over the loss of his old business standing and reputation, +Colonel Tom had shot himself in a New York hotel. + +Sam sat at his desk, fingering the yellow paper lying before him and +fighting to get his head clear. + +"The old coward. The damned old coward," he muttered; "any one could +have done that." + +When Lewis came into Sam's office he found his chief sitting at his desk +fingering the telegram and muttering to himself. When Sam handed him the +wire he came around and stood beside Sam, his hand upon his shoulder. + +"Well, do not blame yourself for that," he said, with quick +understanding. + +"I don't," Sam muttered; "I do not blame myself for anything. I am a +result, not a cause. I am trying to think. I am not through yet. I am +going to begin again when I get things thought out." + +Lewis went out of the room leaving him to his thoughts. For an hour +he sat there reviewing his life. When he came to the day that he had +humiliated Colonel Tom, there came back to his mind the sentence he had +written on the sheet of paper while the vote was being counted. "The +best men spend their lives seeking truth." + +Suddenly he came to a decision and, calling Lewis, began laying out a +plan of action. His head cleared and the ring came back into his +voice. To Lewis he gave an option on his entire holdings of Edwards +Consolidated stocks and bonds and to him also he entrusted the clearing +up of deal after deal in which he was interested. Then, calling a +broker, he began throwing a mass of stock on the market. When Lewis told +him that Crofts was 'phoning wildly about town to find him, and was with +the help of another banker supporting the market and taking Sam's stocks +as fast as offered, he laughed and giving Lewis instructions regarding +the disposal of his monies walked out of the office, again a free man +and again seeking the answer to his problem. + +He made no attempt to answer Sue's wire. He was restless to get at +something he had in his mind. He went to his apartments and packed a bag +and from there disappeared saying goodbye to no one. In his mind was no +definite idea of where he was going or what he was going to do. He knew +only that he would follow the message his hand had written. He would try +to spend his life seeking truth. + + + + +BOOK III + + +CHAPTER I + + +One day when the youth Sam McPherson was new in the city he went on a +Sunday afternoon to a down-town theatre to hear a sermon. The sermon was +delivered by a small dark-skinned Boston man, and seemed to the young +McPherson scholarly and well thought out. + +"The greatest man is he whose deeds affect the greatest number of +lives," the speaker had said, and the thought had stuck in Sam's mind. +Now walking along the street carrying his travelling bag, he remembered +the sermon and the thought and shook his head in doubt. + +"What I have done here in this city must have affected thousands of +lives," he mused, and felt a quickening of his blood at just letting go +of his thoughts as he had not dared do since that day when, by breaking +his word to Sue, he had started on his career as a business giant. + +He began to think of the quest on which he had started and had keen +satisfaction in the thought of what he should do. + +"I will begin all over and come up to Truth through work," he told +himself. "I will leave the money hunger behind me, and if it returns I +will come back here to Chicago and see my fortune piled up and the men +rushing about the banks and the stock exchange and the court they pay to +such fools and brutes as I have been, and that will cure me." + +Into the Illinois Central Station he went, a strange spectacle. A +smile came to his lips as he sat on a bench along the wall between an +immigrant from Russia and a small plump farmer's wife who held a banana +in her hand and gave bites of it to a rosy-cheeked babe lying in her +arms. He, an American multimillionaire, a man in the midst of his +money-making, one who had realised the American dream, to have sickened +at the feast and to have wandered out of a fashionable club with a bag +in his hand and a roll of bills in his pocket and to have come on this +strange quest--to seek Truth, to seek God. A few years of the fast +greedy living in the city, that had seemed so splendid to the Iowa boy +and to the men and women who had lived in his town, and then a woman had +died lonely and in want in that Iowa town, and half across the continent +a fat blustering old man had shot himself in a New York hotel, and here +he sat. + +Leaving his bag in the care of the farmer's wife, he walked across the +room to the ticket window and standing there watched the people with +definite destinations in mind come up, lay down money, and taking their +tickets go briskly away. He had no fear of being known. Although his +name and his picture had been upon the front pages of Chicago newspapers +for years, he felt so great a change within himself from just the +resolution he had taken that he had no doubt of passing unnoticed. + +A thought struck him. Looking up and down the long room filled with +its strangely assorted clusters of men and women a sense of the great +toiling masses of people, the labourers, the small merchants, the +skilled mechanics, came over him. + +"These are the Americans," he began telling himself, "these people with +children beside them and with hard daily work to be done, and many +of them with stunted or imperfectly developed bodies, not Crofts, not +Morrison and I, but these others who toil without hope of luxury and +wealth, who make up the armies in times of war and raise up boys and +girls to do the work of the world in their turn." + +He fell into the line moving toward the ticket window behind a +sturdy-looking old man who carried a box of carpenter tools in one hand +and a bag in the other, and bought a ticket to the same Illinois town to +which the old man was bound. + +In the train he sat beside the old man and the two fell into quiet +talk--the old man talking of his family. He had a son, married and +living in the Illinois town to which he was going, of whom he began +boasting. The son, he said, had gone to that town and had prospered +there, owning a hotel which his wife managed while he worked as a +builder. + +"Ed," he said, "keeps fifty or sixty men going all summer. He has sent +for me to come and take charge of a gang. He knows well enough I will +get the work out of them." + +From Ed the old man drifted into talk of himself and his life, telling +bare facts with directness and simplicity and making no effort to +disguise a slight turn of vanity in his success. + +"I have raised seven sons and made them all good workmen and they are +all doing well," he said. + +He told of each in detail. One, who had taken to books, was a mechanical +engineer in a manufacturing town in New England. The mother of his +children had died the year before and of his three daughters two had +married mechanics. The third, Sam gathered, had not done well and from +something the old man said he thought she had perhaps gone the wrong way +there in Chicago. + +To the old man Sam talked of God and of a man's effort to get truth out +of life. + +"I have thought of it a lot," he said. + +The old man was interested. He looked at Sam and then out at the car +window and began talking of his own beliefs, the substance of which Sam +could not get. + +"God is a spirit and lives in the growing corn," said the old man, +pointing out the window at the passing fields. + +He began talking of churches and of ministers, against whom he was +filled with bitterness. + +"They are dodgers. They do not get at things. They are damned dodgers, +pretending to be good," he declared. + +Sam talked of himself, saying that he was alone in the world and had +money. He said that he wanted work in the open air, not for the money it +would bring him, but because his paunch was large and his hand trembled +in the morning. + +"I've been drinking," he said, "and I want to work hard day after day so +that my muscles may become firm and sleep come to me at night." + +The old man thought that his son could find Sam a place. + +"He's a driver--Ed is," he said, laughing, "and he won't pay you much. +Ed don't let go of money. He's a tight one." + +Night had come when they reached the town where Ed lived, and the three +men walked over a bridge, beneath which roared a waterfall, toward the +long poorly-lighted main street of the town and Ed's hotel. Ed, a young, +broad-shouldered man, with a dry cigar stuck in the corner of his mouth, +led the way. He had engaged Sam standing in the darkness on the station +platform, accepting his story without comment. + +"I'll let you carry timbers and drive nails," he said, "that will harden +you up." + +On the way over the bridge he talked of the town. + +"It's a live place," he said, "we are getting people in here." + +"Look at that!" he exclaimed, chewing at the cigar and pointing to the +waterfall that foamed and roared almost under the bridge. "There's a lot +of power there and where there's power there will be a city." + +At Ed's hotel some twenty men sat about a long low office. They were, +for the most part, middle-aged working men and sat in silence reading +and smoking pipes. At a table pushed against the wall a bald-headed +young man with a scar on his cheek played solitaire with a greasy pack +of cards, and in front of him and sitting in a chair tilted against the +wall a sullen-faced boy idly watched the game. When the three men came +into the office the boy dropped his chair to the floor and stared at Ed +who stared back at him. It was as though a contest of some sort went on +between them. A tall neatly-dressed woman, with a brisk manner and pale, +inexpressive, hard blue eyes, stood back of a little combined desk and +cigar case at the end of the room, and as the three walked toward her +she looked from Ed to the sullen-faced boy and then again at Ed. Sam +concluded she was a woman bent on having her own way. She had that air. + +"This is my wife," said Ed, introducing Sam with a wave of his hand and +passing around the end of the desk to stand by her side. + +Ed's wife twirled the hotel register about facing Sam, nodded her head, +and then, leaning over the desk, bestowed a quick kiss upon the leathery +cheek of the old carpenter. + +Sam and the old man found a place in chairs along the wall and sat down +among the silent men. The old man pointed to the boy in the chair beside +the card players. + +"Their son," he whispered cautiously. + +The boy looked at his mother, who in turn looked steadily at him, and +got up from his chair. Back of the desk Ed talked in low tones to his +wife. The boy, stopping before Sam and the old man and still looking +toward the woman, put out his hand which the old man took. Then, without +speaking, he went past the desk and through a doorway, and began noisily +climbing a flight of stairs, followed by his mother. As they climbed +they berated each other, their voices rising to a high pitch and echoing +through the upper part of the house. + +Ed, coming across to them, talked to Sam about the assignment of a room, +and the men began looking at the stranger; noting his fine clothes, +their eyes filled with curiosity. + +"Selling something?" asked a large red-haired young man, rolling a quid +of tobacco in his mouth. + +"No," replied Sam shortly, "going to work for Ed." + +The silent men in chairs along the wall dropped their newspapers and +stared, and the bald-headed young man at the table sat with open mouth, +a card held suspended in the air. Sam had become, for the moment, a +centre of interest and the men stirred in their chairs and began to +whisper and point to him. + +A large, watery-eyed man, with florid cheeks, clad in a long overcoat +with spots down the front, came in at the door and passed through the +room bowing and smiling to the men. Taking Ed by the arm he disappeared +into a little barroom, where Sam could hear him talking in low tones. + +After a little while the florid-faced man came and put his head through +the barroom door into the office. + +"Come on, boys," he said, smiling and nodding right and left, "the +drinks are on me." + +The men got up and filed into the bar, the old man and Sam remaining +seated in their chairs. They began talking in undertones. + +"I'll start 'em thinking--these men," said the old man. + +From his pocket he took a pamphlet and gave it to Sam. It was a crudely +written attack upon rich men and corporations. + +"Some brains in the fellow who wrote that," said the old carpenter, +rubbing his hands together and smiling. + +Sam did not think so. He sat reading it and listening to the loud, +boisterous voices of the men in the barroom. The florid-faced man was +explaining the details of a proposed town bond issue. Sam gathered that +the water power in the river was to be developed. + +"We want to make this a live town," said the voice of Ed, earnestly. + +The old man, leaning over and putting his hand beside his mouth, began +whispering to Sam. + +"I'll bet there is a capitalist deal back of that power scheme," he +said. + +He nodded his head up and down and smiled knowingly. + +"If there is Ed will be in on it," he added. "You can't lose Ed. He's a +slick one." + +He took the pamphlet from Sam's hand and put it in his pocket. + +"I'm a socialist," he explained, "but don't say anything. Ed's against +'em." + +The men filed back into the room, each with a freshly-lighted cigar in +his mouth, and the florid-faced man followed them and went out at the +office door. + +"Well, so long, boys," he shouted heartily. + +Ed went silently up the stairs to join the mother and boy, whose voices +could still be heard raised in outbursts of wrath from above as the men +took their former chairs along the wall. + +"Well, Bill's sure all right," said the red-haired young man, evidently +expressing the opinion of the men in regard to the florid-faced man. + +A small bent old man with sunken cheeks got up and walking across the +room leaned against the cigar case. + +"Did you ever hear this one?" he asked, looking about. + +Obviously no answer could be given and the bent old man launched into +a vile pointless anecdote of a woman, a miner, and a mule, the crowd +giving close attention and laughing uproariously when he had finished. +The socialist rubbed his hands together and joined in the applause. + +"That was a good one, eh?" he commented, turning to Sam. + +Sam, picking up his bag, climbed the stairway as the red-haired young +man launched into another tale, slightly less vile. In his room to which +Ed, meeting him at the top of the stairs, led him, still chewing at the +unlighted cigar, he turned out the light and sat on the edge of the bed. +He was as homesick as a boy. + +"Truth," he muttered, looking through the window to the dimly-lighted +street. "Do these men seek truth?" + +The next day he went to work, wearing a suit of clothes bought from +Ed. He worked with Ed's father, carrying timbers and driving nails as +directed by him. In the gang with him were four men, boarders at Ed's +hotel, and four other men who lived in the town with their families. At +the noon hour he asked the old carpenter how the men from the hotel, who +did not live in the town, could vote on the question of the power bonds. +The old man grinned and rubbed his hands together. + +"I don't know," he said. "I suppose Ed tends to that. He's a slick one, +Ed is." + +At work, the men who had been so silent in the office of the hotel were +alert and wonderfully busy, hurrying here and there at a word from the +old man and sawing and nailing furiously. They seemed bent upon outdoing +each other and when one fell behind they laughed and shouted at him, +asking him if he had decided to quit for the day. But though they seemed +determined to outdo him the old man kept ahead of them all, his hammer +beating a rattling tattoo upon the boards all day. At the noon hour he +had given each of the men one of the pamphlets from his pocket and on +the way back to his hotel in the evening he told Sam that the others had +tried to show him up. + +"They wanted to see if I had juice in me," he explained, strutting +beside Sam with an amusing little swagger of his shoulders. + +Sam was sick with fatigue. His hands were blistered, his legs felt weak, +and a terrible thirst burned in his throat. All day he had gone grimly +ahead, thankful for every physical discomfort, every throb of his +strained, tired muscles. In his weariness and in his efforts to keep +pace with the others he had forgotten Colonel Tom and Mary Underwood. + +All during that month and into the next Sam stayed with the old man's +gang. He ceased thinking, and only worked desperately. An odd feeling +of loyalty and devotion to the old man came over him and he felt that he +too must prove that he had the juice in him. At the hotel he went to bed +immediately after the silent dinner, slept, awoke aching, and went to +work again. + +One Sunday one of the men of his gang came to Sam's room and invited him +to go with a party of the workers into the country. They went in boats, +carrying with them kegs of beer, to a deep ravine clothed on both sides +by heavy woods. In the boat with Sam sat the red-haired young man, who +was called Jake and who talked loudly of the time they would have in the +woods, and boasted that he was the instigator of the trip. + +"I thought of it," he said over and over again. + +Sam wondered why he had been invited. It was a soft October day and +in the ravine he sat looking at the trees splashed with colour and +breathing deeply of the air, his whole body relaxed, grateful for the +day of rest. Jake came and sat beside him. + +"What are you?" he asked bluntly. "We know you are no working man." + +Sam told him a half-truth. + +"You are right enough about that; I have money enough not to have to +work. I used to be a business man. I sold guns. But I have a disease and +the doctors have told me that if I do not work out of doors part of me +will die." + +The man from his own gang who had invited him on the trip came up to +them, bringing Sam a foaming glass of beer. He shook his head. + +"The doctor says it will not do," he explained to the two men. + +The red-haired man called Jake began talking. + +"We are going to have a fight with Ed," he said. "That's what we came up +here to talk about. We want to know where you stand. We are going to see +if we can't make him pay as well for the work here as men are paid for +the same work in Chicago." + +Sam lay back upon the grass. + +"All right," he said. "Go ahead. If I can help I will. I'm not so fond +of Ed." + +The men began talking among themselves. Jake, standing among them, read +aloud a list of names among which was the name Sam had written on the +register at Ed's hotel. + +"It's a list of the names of men we think will stick together and vote +together on the bond issue," he explained, turning to Sam. "Ed's in that +and we want to use our votes to scare him into giving us what we want. +Will you stay with us? You look like a fighter." + +Sam nodded and getting up joined the men about the beer kegs. They began +talking of Ed and of the money he had made in the town. + +"He's done a lot of town work here and there's been graft in all of +it," explained Jake emphatically. "It's time he was being made to do the +right thing." + +While they talked Sam sat watching the men's faces. They did not seem +vile to him now as they had seemed that first evening in the hotel +office. He began thinking of them silently and alertly at work all day +long, surrounded by such influences as Ed and Bill, and the thought +sweetened his opinion of them. + +"Look here," he said, "tell me of this matter. I was a business man +before I came here and I may be able to help you fellows get what you +want." + +Getting up, Jake took Sam's arm and they walked down the ravine, Jake +explaining the situation in the town. + +"The game," he said, "is to make the taxpayers pay for a millrace to be +built for the development of the water power in the river and then, by a +trick, to turn it over to a private company. Bill and Ed are both in the +deal and they are working for a Chicago man named Crofts. He's been up +here at the hotel with Bill talking to Ed. I've figured out what they +are up to." Sam sat down upon a log and laughed heartily. + +"Crofts, eh?" he exclaimed. "Say, we will fight this thing. If Crofts +has been up here you can depend upon it there is some size to the deal. +We will just smash the whole crooked gang for the good of the town." + +"How would you do that?" asked Jake. + +Sam sat down on a log and looked at the river flowing past the mouth of +the ravine. + +"Just fight," he said. "Let me show you something." + +He took a pencil and slip of paper from his pocket, and, with the +voices of the men about the beer kegs in his ears and the red-haired man +peering over his shoulder, began writing his first political pamphlet. +He wrote and erased and changed words and phrases. The pamphlet was a +statement of facts as to the value of water power, and was addressed to +the taxpayers of the community. He warmed to the subject, saying that a +fortune lay sleeping in the river, and that the town, by the exercise of +a little discretion now, could build with that fortune a beautiful city +belonging to the people. + +"This fortune in the river rightly managed will pay the expenses of +government and give you control of a great source of revenue forever," +he wrote. "Build your millrace, but look out for a trick of the +politicians. They are trying to steal it. Reject the offer of the +Chicago banker named Crofts. Demand an investigation. A capitalist has +been found who will take the water power bonds at four per cent and back +the people in this fight for a free American city." Across the head +of the pamphlet Sam wrote the caption, "A River Paved With Gold," and +handed it to Jake, who read it and whistled softly. + +"Good!" he said. "I will take this and have it printed. It will make +Bill and Ed sit up." + +Sam took a twenty-dollar bill from his pocket and gave it to the man. + +"To pay for the printing," he said. "And when we have them licked I am +the man who will take the four per cent bonds." + +Jake scratched his head. "How much do you suppose the deal is worth to +Crofts?" + +"A million, or he would not bother," Sam answered. + +Jake folded the paper and put it in his pocket. + +"This would make Bill and Ed squirm, eh?" he laughed. + +Going home down the river the men, filled with beer, sang and shouted +as the boats, guided by Sam and Jake, floated along. The night fell +warm and still and Sam thought he had never seen the sky so filled +with stars. His brain was busy with the idea of doing something for the +people. + +"Perhaps here in this town I shall make a start toward what I am after," +he thought, his heart filled with happiness and the songs of the tipsy +workmen ringing in his ears. + +All through the next few weeks there was an air of something astir among +the men of Sam's gang and about Ed's hotel. During the evening Jake +went among the men talking in low tones, and once he took a three days' +vacation, telling Ed that he did not feel well and spending the time +among the men employed in the plough works up the river. From time to +time he came to Sam for money. + +"For the campaign," he said, winking and hurrying away. + +Suddenly a speaker appeared and began talking nightly from a box before +a drug store on Main Street, and after dinner the office of Ed's hotel +was deserted. The man on the box had a blackboard hung on a pole, on +which he drew figures estimating the value of the power in the river, +and as he talked he grew more and more excited, waving his arms and +inveighing against certain leasing clauses in the bond proposal. He +declared himself a follower of Karl Marx and delighted the old carpenter +who danced up and down in the road and rubbed his hands. + +"It will come to something--this will--you'll see," he declared to Sam. + +One day Ed appeared, riding in a buggy, at the job where Sam worked, +and called the old man into the road. He sat pounding one hand upon the +other and talking in a low voice. Sam thought the old man had perhaps +been indiscreet in the distribution of the socialistic pamphlets. He +seemed nervous, dancing up and down beside the buggy and shaking his +head. Then hurrying back to where the men worked he pointed over his +shoulder with his thumb. + +"Ed wants you," he said, and Sam noticed that his voice trembled and his +hand shook. + +In the buggy Ed and Sam rode in silence. Again Ed chewed at an unlighted +cigar. + +"I want to talk with you," he had said as Sam climbed into the buggy. + +At the hotel the two men got out of the buggy and went into the office. +Inside the door Ed, who came behind, sprang forward and pinioned Sam's +arms with his own. He was as powerful as a bear. His wife, the tall +woman with the inexpressive eyes, came running into the room, her face +drawn with hatred. In her hand she carried a broom and with the +handle of this she struck Sam several swinging blows across the face, +accompanying each blow with a half scream of rage and a volley of vile +names. The sullen-faced boy, alive now and with eyes burning with zeal, +came running down the stairs and pushed the woman aside. He struck Sam +time after time in the face with his fist, laughing each time as Sam +winced under the blows. + +Sam struggled furiously to escape Ed's powerful grasp. It was the first +time he had ever been beaten and the first time he had faced hopeless +defeat. The wrath within him was so intense that the jolting impact +of the blows seemed a secondary matter to the need of escaping Ed's +vice-like grasp. + +Suddenly Ed turned and, pushing Sam before him, threw him through the +office door and into the street. In falling his head struck against a +hitching post and he lay stunned. When he partially recovered from the +fall Sam got up and walked along the street. His face was swollen and +bruised and his nose bled. The street was deserted and the assault upon +him had been unnoticed. + +He went to a hotel on Main Street--a more pretentious place than Ed's, +near the bridge leading to the station--and as he passed in he saw, +through an open door, Jake, the red-haired man, leaning against the bar +and talking to Bill, the man with the florid face. Sam, paying for a +room, went upstairs and to bed. + +In the bed, with cold bandages on his bruised face, he tried to get +the situation in hand. Hatred for Ed ran through his veins. His hands +clenched, his brain whirled, and the brutal, passionate faces of the +woman and the boy danced before his eyes. + +"I'll fix them, the brutal bullies," he muttered aloud. + +And then the thought of his quest came back to his mind and quieted him. +Through the window came the roar of the waterfall, broken by noises of +the street. As he fell asleep they mingled with his dreams, sounding +soft and quiet like the low talk of a family about the fire of an +evening. + +He was awakened by a noise of pounding on his door. At his call the door +opened and the face of the old carpenter appeared. Sam laughed and sat +up in bed. Already the cold bandages had soothed the throbbing of his +bruised face. + +"Go away," begged the old man, rubbing his hands together nervously. +"Get out of town." + +He put his hand to his mouth and talked in a hoarse whisper, looking +back over his shoulder through the open door. Sam, getting out of bed, +began filling his pipe. + +"You can't beat Ed, you fellows," added the old man, backing out at the +door. "He's a slick one, Ed is. You better get out of town." + +Sam called a boy and gave him a note to Ed asking for his clothes and +for the bag in his room, and to the boy he gave a large bill, asking him +to pay anything due. When the boy came back bringing the clothes and the +bag he returned the bill unbroken. + +"They're scared about something up there," he said, looking at Sam's +bruised face. + +Sam dressed carefully and went down into the street. He remembered that +he had never seen a printed copy of the political pamphlet written in +the ravine and realised that Jake had used it to make money for himself. + +"Now I shall try something else," he thought. + +It was early evening and crowds of men coming down the railroad track +from the plough works turned to right and left as they reached Main +Street. Sam walked among them, climbing a little hilly side street to +a number he had got from a clerk at the drug store before which the +socialist had talked. He stopped at a little frame house and a moment +after knocking was in the presence of the man who had talked night after +night from the box in the street. Sam had decided to see what could be +done through him. The socialist was a short, fat man, with curly grey +hair, shiny round cheeks, and black broken teeth. He sat on the edge of +his bed and looked as if he had slept in his clothes. A corncob pipe lay +smoking among the covers of the bed, and during most of the talk he sat +with one shoe held in his hand as though about to put it on. About the +room in orderly piles lay stack after stack of paper-covered books. Sam +sat down in a chair by the window and told his mission. + +"It is a big thing, this power steal that is going on here," he +explained. "I know the man back of it and he would not bother with a +small affair. I know they are going to make the city build the millrace +and then steal it. It will be a big thing for your party about here if +you take hold and stop them. Let me tell you how it can be done." + +He explained his plan, and told of Crofts and of his wealth and dogged, +bullying determination. The socialist seemed beside himself. He pulled +on the shoe and began running hurriedly about the room. + +"The time for the election," Sam went on, "is almost here. I have looked +into this thing. We must beat this bond issue and then put through a +square one. There is a train out of Chicago at seven o'clock, a fast +train. You get fifty speakers out here. I will pay for a special train +if necessary and I will hire a band and help stir things up. I can give +you facts enough to shake this town to the bottom. You come with me and +'phone to Chicago. I will pay everything. I am McPherson, Sam McPherson +of Chicago." + +The socialist ran to a closet and began pulling on his coat. The name +affected him so that his hand trembled and he could scarcely get his arm +into the coat sleeve. He began to apologise for the appearance of the +room and kept looking at Sam with the air of one not able to believe +what he had heard. As the two men walked out of the house he ran ahead +holding doors open for Sam's passage. + +"And you will help us, Mr. McPherson?" he exclaimed. "You, a man of +millions, will help us in this fight?" + +Sam had a feeling that the man was going to kiss his hand or do +something equally ridiculous. He had the air of a club door man gone off +his head. + +At the hotel Sam stood in the lobby while the fat man waited in a +telephone booth. + +"I will have to 'phone Chicago, I will simply have to 'phone Chicago. We +socialists don't do anything like this offhand, Mr. McPherson," he had +explained as they walked along the street. + +When the socialist came out of the booth he stood before Sam shaking his +head. His whole attitude had changed, and he looked like a man caught +doing a foolish or absurd thing. + +"Nothing doing, nothing doing, Mr. McPherson," he said, starting for the +hotel door. + +At the door he stopped and shook his finger at Sam. + +"It won't work," he said, emphatically. "Chicago is too wise." + +Sam turned and went back to his room. His name had killed his only +chance to beat Crofts, Jake, Bill and Ed. In his room he sat looking out +of the window into the street. + +"Where shall I take hold now?" he asked himself. + +Turning out the lights he sat listening to the roar of the waterfall and +thinking of the events of the last week. + +"I have had a time," he thought. "I have tried something and even though +it did not work it has been the best fun I have had for years." + +The hours slipped away and night came on. He could hear men shouting and +laughing in the street, and going downstairs he stood in a hallway at +the edge of the crowd that gathered about the socialist. The orator +shouted and waved his hand. He seemed as proud as a young recruit who +has just passed through his first baptism of fire. + +"He tried to make a fool of me--McPherson of Chicago--the +millionaire--one of the capitalist kings--he tried to bribe me and my +party." + +In the crowd the old carpenter was dancing in the road and rubbing his +hands together. With the feeling of a man who had finished a piece of +work or turned the last leaf of a book, Sam went back to his hotel. + +"In the morning I shall be on my way," he thought. + +A knock came at the door and the red-haired man came in. He closed the +door softly and winked at Sam. + +"Ed made a mistake," he said, and laughed. "The old man told him you +were a socialist and he thought you were trying to spoil the graft. +He is scared about that beating you got and mighty sorry. He's all +right--Ed is--and he and Bill and I have got the votes. What made you +stay under cover so long? Why didn't you tell us you were McPherson?" + +Sam saw the hopelessness of any attempt to explain. Jake had evidently +sold out the men. Sam wondered how. + +"How do you know you can deliver the votes?'" he asked, trying to lead +Jake on. + +Jake rolled the quid in his mouth and winked again. + +"It was easy enough to fix the men when Ed, Bill and I got together," he +said. "You know about the other. There's a clause in the act authorising +the bond issue, a sleeper, Bill calls it. You know more about that than +I do. Anyway the power will be turned over to the man we say." + +"But how do I know you can deliver the votes?" + +Jake threw out his hand impatiently. + +"What do they know?" he asked sharply. "What they want is more wages. +There's a million in the power deal and they can't any more realise a +million than they can tell what they want to do in Heaven. I promised +Ed's fellows the city scale. Ed can't kick. He'll make a hundred +thousand as it stands. Then I promised the plough works gang a ten per +cent raise. We'll get it for them if we can, but if we can't, they won't +know it till the deal is put through." + +Sam walked over and held open the door. + +"Good night," he said. + +Jake looked annoyed. + +"Ain't you even going to make a bid against Crofts?" he asked. "We ain't +tied to him if you do better by us. I'm in this thing because you put me +in. That piece you wrote up the river scared 'em stiff. I want to do +the right thing by you. Don't be sore about Ed. He wouldn't a done it if +he'd known." + +Sam shook his head and stood with his hand still on the door. + +"Good night," he said again. "I am not in it. I have dropped it. No use +trying to explain." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +For weeks and months Sam led a wandering vagabond life, and surely a +stranger or more restless vagabond never went upon the road. In his +pocket he had at almost any time from one to five thousand dollars, his +bag went on from place to place ahead of him, and now and then he caught +up with it, unpacked it, and wore a suit of his former Chicago clothes +upon the streets of some town. For the most part, however, he wore the +rough clothes bought from Ed, and, when these were gone, others like +them, with a warm canvas outer jacket, and for rough weather a pair of +heavy boots lacing half way up the legs. Among the people, he passed for +a rather well-set-up workman with money in his pocket going his own way. + +During all those months of wandering, and even when he had returned to +something nearer his former way of life, his mind was unsettled and his +outlook on life disturbed. Sometimes it seemed to him that he, among +all men, was a unique, an innovation. Day after day his mind ground away +upon his problem and he was determined to seek and to keep on seeking +until he found for himself a way of peace. In the towns and in the +country through which he passed he saw the clerks in the stores, +the merchants with worried faces hurrying into banks, the farmers, +brutalised by toil, dragging their weary bodies homeward at the coming +of night, and told himself that all life was abortive, that on all sides +of him it wore itself out in little futile efforts or ran away in side +currents, that nowhere did it move steadily, continuously forward giving +point to the tremendous sacrifice involved in just living and working in +the world. He thought of Christ going about seeing the world and talking +to men, and thought that he too would go and talk to them, not as a +teacher, but as one seeking eagerly to be taught. At times he was filled +with longing and inexpressible hopes and, like the boy of Caxton, would +get out of bed, not now to stand in Miller's pasture watching the rain +on the surface of the water, but to walk endless miles through the +darkness getting the blessed relief of fatigue into his body and often +paying for and occupying two beds in one night. + +Sam wanted to go back to Sue; he wanted peace and something like +happiness, but most of all he wanted work, real work, work that would +demand of him day after day the best and finest in him so that he would +be held to the need of renewing constantly the better impulses of his +mind. He was at the top of his life, and the few weeks of hard physical +exertion as a driver of nails and a bearer of timbers had begun to +restore his body to shapeliness and strength, so that he was filled anew +with all of his native restlessness and energy; but he was determined +that he would not again pour himself out in work that would react upon +him as had his money making, his dream of beautiful children, and this +last half-formed dream of a kind of financial fatherhood to the Illinois +town. + +The incident with Ed and the red-haired man had been his first serious +effort at anything like social service achieved through controlling or +attempting to influence the public mind, for his was the type of mind +that runs to the concrete, the actual. As he sat in the ravine talking +to Jake, and, later, coming home in the boat under the multitude of +stars, he had looked up from among the drunken workmen and his mind had +seen a city built for a people, a city independent, beautiful, strong, +and free, but a glimpse of a red head through a barroom door and a +socialist trembling before a name had dispelled the vision. After his +return from hearing the socialist, who in his turn was hedged about by +complicated influences, and in those November days when he walked south +through Illinois, seeing the late glory of the trees and breathing the +fine air, he laughed at himself for having had the vision. It was not +that the red-haired man had sold him out, it was not the beating given +him by Ed's sullen-faced son or the blows across the face at the hands +of his vigorous wife--it was just that at bottom he did not believe the +people wanted reform; they wanted a ten per cent raise in wages. The +public mind was a thing too big, too complicated and inert for a vision +or an ideal to get at and move deeply. + +And then, walking on the road and struggling to find truth even within +himself, Sam had to come to something else. At bottom he was no leader, +no reformer. He had not wanted the free city for a free people, but as a +work to be done by his own hand. He was McPherson, the money maker, the +man who loved himself. The fact, not the sight of Jake hobnobbing with +Bill or the timidity of the socialist, had blocked his way to work as a +political reformer and builder. + +Tramping south between the rows of shocked corn he laughed at himself. +"The experience with Ed and Jake has done something for me," he thought. +"They bullied me. I have been a kind of bully myself and what has +happened has been good medicine for me." + +Sam walked the roads of Illinois, Ohio, New York, and other states, +through hill country and flat country, in the snow drifts of winter and +through the storms of spring, talking to people, asking their way of +life and the end toward which they worked. At night he dreamed of Sue, +of his boyhood struggles in Caxton, of Janet Eberly sitting in her chair +and talking of writers of books, or, visualising the stock exchange or +some garish drinking place, he saw again the faces of Crofts, Webster, +Morrison, and Prince intent and eager as he laid before them some scheme +of money making. Sometimes at night he awoke, seized with horror, seeing +Colonel Tom with the revolver pressed against his head; and sitting in +his bed, and all through the next day he talked aloud to himself. + +"The damned old coward," he shouted into the darkness of his room or +into the wide peaceful prospect of the countryside. + +The idea of Colonel Tom as a suicide seemed unreal, grotesque, horrible. +It was as though some round-cheeked, curly-headed boy had done the thing +to himself. The man had been so boyishly, so blusteringly incompetent, +so completely and absolutely without bigness and purpose. + +"And yet," thought Sam, "he has found strength to whip me, the man of +ability. He has taken revenge, absolute and unanswerable, for the slight +I put upon the little play world in which he had been king." + +In fancy Sam could see the great paunch and the little white pointed +beard sticking up from the floor in the room where the colonel lay dead, +and into his mind came a saying, a sentence, the distorted remembrance +of a thought he had got from a book of Janet's or from some talk he had +heard, perhaps at his own dinner table. + +"It is horrible to see a fat man with purple veins in his face lying +dead." + +At such times he hurried along the road like one pursued. People driving +past in buggies and seeing him and hearing the stream of talk that +issued from his lips, turned and watched him out of sight. And Sam, +hurrying and seeking relief from the thoughts in his mind, called to +the old commonsense instincts within himself as a captain marshals his +forces to withstand an attack. + +"I will find work. I will find work. I will seek Truth," he said. + +Sam avoided the larger towns or went hurriedly through them, sleeping +night after night at village hotels or at some hospitable farmhouse, and +daily he increased the length of his walks, getting real satisfaction +from the aching of his legs and from the bruising of his unaccustomed +feet on the hard road. Like St. Jerome, he had a wish to beat upon +his body and subdue the flesh. In turn he was blown upon by the wind, +chilled by the winter frost, wet by the rains, and warmed by the sun. +In the spring he swam in rivers, lay on sheltered hillsides watching the +cattle grazing in the fields and the white clouds floating across the +sky, and constantly his legs became harder and his body more flat and +sinewy. Once he slept for a night in a straw stack at the edge of a +woods and in the morning was awakened by a farmer's dog licking his +face. + +Several times he came up to vagabonds, umbrella menders and other +roadsters, and walked with them, but he found in their society no +incentive to join in their flights across country on freight trains or +on the fronts of passenger trains. Those whom he met and with whom he +talked and walked did not interest him greatly. They had no end in +life, sought no ideal of usefulness. Walking and talking with them, the +romance went out of their wandering life. They were utterly dull and +stupid, they were, almost without exception, strikingly unclean, they +wanted passionately to get drunk, and they seemed to be forever avoiding +life with its problems and responsibilities. They always talked of +the big cities, of "Chi" and "Cinci" and "Frisco," and were bent upon +getting to one of these places. They condemned the rich and begged and +stole from the poor, talked swaggeringly of their personal courage and +ran whimpering and begging before country constables. One of them, a +tall, leering youth in a grey cap, who came up to Sam one evening at the +edge of a village in Indiana, tried to rob him. Full of his new strength +and with the thought of Ed's wife and the sullen-faced son in his mind, +Sam sprang upon him and had revenge for the beating received in the +office of Ed's hotel by beating this fellow in his turn. When the tall +youth had partially recovered from the beating and had staggered to his +feet, he ran off into the darkness, stopping when well out of reach to +hurl a stone that splashed in the mud of the road at Sam's feet. + +Everywhere Sam sought people who would talk to him of themselves. He +had a kind of faith that a message would come to him out of the mouth of +some simple, homely dweller of the villages or the farms. A woman, +with whom he talked in the railroad station at Fort Wayne, Indiana, +interested him so that he went into a train with her and travelled all +night in the day coach, listening to her talk of her three sons, one +of whom had weak lungs and had, with two younger brothers, taken up +government land in the west. The woman had been with them for some +months, helping them to get a start. + +"I was raised on a farm and knew things they could not know," she told +Sam, raising her voice above the rumble of the train and the snoring of +fellow passengers. + +She had worked with her sons in the field, ploughing and planting, had +driven a team across country, carrying boards for the building of a +house, and had grown brown and strong at the work. + +"And Walter is getting well. His arms are as brown as my own and he has +gained eleven pounds," she said, rolling up her sleeves and showing her +heavy, muscular forearms. + +She planned to take her husband, a machinist working in a bicycle +factory in Buffalo, and her two grown daughters, clerks in a drygoods +store, with her and return to the new country, and having a sense of her +hearer's interest in her story, she talked of the bigness of the +west and the loneliness of the vast, silent plains, saying that they +sometimes made her heart ache. Sam thought she had in some way achieved +success, although he did not see how her experience could serve as a +guide to him. + +"You have got somewhere. You have got hold of a truth," he said, taking +her hand when he got off the train at Cleveland, at dawn. + +At another time, in the late spring, when he was tramping through +southern Ohio, a man drove up beside him, and pulling in his horse, +asked, "Where are you going?" adding genially, "I may be able to give +you a lift." + +Sam looked at him and smiled. Something in the man's manner or in his +dress suggesting the man of God, he assumed a bantering air. + +"I am on my way to the New Jerusalem," he said seriously. "I am one who +seeks God." + +The young minister picked up his reins with a look of alarm, but when +he saw a smile playing about the corners of Sam's mouth, he turned the +wheels of his buggy. + +"Get in and come along with me and we will talk of the New Jerusalem," +he said. + +On the impulse Sam got into the buggy, and driving along the dusty road, +told the essential parts of his story and of his quest for an end toward +which he might work. + +"It would be simple enough if I were without money and driven by hard +necessity, but I am not. I want work, not because it is work and will +bring me bread and butter, but because I need to be doing something that +will satisfy me when I am done. I do not want so much to serve men as to +serve myself. I want to get at happiness and usefulness as for years I +got at money making. There is a right way of life for such a man as me, +and I want to find that way." + +The young minister, who was a graduate of a Lutheran seminary at +Springfield, Ohio, and had come out of college with a very serious +outlook on life, took Sam to his house and together they sat talking +half the night. He had a wife, a country girl with a babe lying at +her breast, who got supper for them, and who, after supper, sat in the +shadows in a corner of the living-room listening to their talk. + +The two men sat together. Sam smoked his pipe and the minister poked at +a coal fire that burned in a stove. They talked of God and of what the +thought of God meant to men; but the young minister did not try to give +Sam an answer to his problem; on the contrary, Sam found him strikingly +dissatisfied and unhappy in his way of life. + +"There is no spirit of God here," he said, poking viciously at the coals +in the stove. "The people here do not want me to talk to them of God. +They have no curiosity about what He wants of them nor of why He has +put them here. They want me to tell them of a city in the sky, a kind +of glorified Dayton, Ohio, to which they can go when they have finished +this life of work and of putting money in the savings bank." + +For several days Sam stayed with the clergyman, driving about the +country with him and talking of God. In the evening they sat in the +house, continuing their talks, and on Sunday Sam went to hear the man +preach in his church. + +The sermon was a disappointment to Sam. Although his host had talked +vigorously and well in private, his public address was stilted and +unnatural. + +"The man," thought Sam, "has no feeling for public address and is not +treating his people well in not giving them, without reservation, +the ideas he has expounded to me in his house." He decided there was +something to be said for the people who sat patiently listening week +after week and who gave the man the means of a living for so lame an +effort. + +One evening when Sam had been with them for a week the young wife came +to him as he stood on the little porch before the house. + +"I wish you would go away," she said, standing with her babe in her +arms and looking at the porch floor. "You stir him up and make him +dissatisfied." + +Sam stepped off the porch and hurried off up the road into the darkness. +There had been tears in the wife's eyes. + +In June he went with a threshing crew, working among labourers and +eating with them in the fields or about the crowded tables of farmhouses +where they stopped to thresh. Each day Sam and the men with him worked +in a new place and had as helpers the farmer for whom they threshed and +several of his neighbours. The farmers worked at a killing pace and the +men of the threshing crew were expected to keep abreast of each new lot +of them day after day. At night the threshermen, too weary for talk, +crept into the loft of a barn, slept until daylight and then began +another day of heartbreaking toil. On Sunday morning they went for a +swim in some creek and in the afternoon sat in a barn or under the trees +of an orchard sleeping or indulging in detached, fragmentary bits of +talk, talk that never rose above a low, wearisome level. For hours they +would try to settle a dispute as to whether a horse they had seen at +some farm during the week had three, or four, white feet, and one man +in the crew never talked at all, sitting on his heels through the long +Sunday afternoons and whittling at a stick with his pocket knife. + +The threshing outfit with which Sam worked was owned by a man named Joe, +who was in debt for it to the maker and who, after working with the +men all day, drove about the country half the night making deals +with farmers for other days of threshing. Sam thought that he looked +constantly on the point of collapse through overwork and worry, and one +of the men, who had been with Joe through several seasons, told Sam that +at the end of the season their employer did not have enough money left +from his season of work to pay the interest on the debt for his machines +and that he continually took jobs for less than the cost of doing them. + +"One has to keep going," said Joe, when one day Sam began talking to him +on the matter. + +When told to keep Sam's wage until the end of the season he looked +relieved and at the end of the season came to Sam, looking more worried +and said that he had no money. + +"I will give you a note bearing good interest if you can let me have a +little time," he said. + +Sam took the note and looked at the pale, drawn face peering out of him +from the shadows at the back of the barn. + +"Why do you not drop the whole thing and begin working for some one +else?" he asked. + +Joe looked indignant. + +"A man wants independence," he said. + +When Sam got again upon the road he stopped at a little bridge over a +stream, and tearing up Joe's note watched the torn pieces of it float +away upon the brown water. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Through the summer and early fall Sam continued his wanderings. The +days on which something happened or on which something outside himself +interested or attracted him were special days, giving him food for hours +of thought, but for the most part he walked on and on for weeks, sunk in +a kind of healing lethargy of physical fatigue. Always he tried to get +at people who came into his way and to discover something of their way +of life and the end toward which they worked, and many an open-mouthed, +staring man and woman he left behind him on the road and on the +sidewalks of the villages. He had one principle of action; whenever an +idea came into his mind he did not hesitate, but began trying at once +the practicability of living by following the idea, and although +the practice brought him to no end and only seemed to multiply the +difficulties of the problem he was striving to work out, it brought him +many strange experiences. + +At one time he was for several days a bartender in a saloon in a town +in eastern Ohio. The saloon was in a small wooden building facing a +railroad track and Sam had gone in there with a labourer met on the +sidewalk. It was a stormy night in September at the end of his first +year of wandering and while he stood by a roaring coal stove, after +buying drinks for the labourer and cigars for himself, several men came +in and stood by the bar drinking together. As they drank they became +more and more friendly, slapping each other on the back, singing songs +and boasting. One of them got out upon the floor and danced a jig. The +proprietor, a round-faced man with one dead eye, who had himself been +drinking freely, put a bottle upon the bar and coming up to Sam, began +complaining that he had no bartender and had to work long hours. + +"Drink what you want, boys, and then I'll tell you what you owe," he +said to the men standing along the bar. + +Watching the men who drank and played like school boys about the room, +and looking at the bottle sitting on the bar, the contents of which had +for the moment taken the sombre dulness out of the lives of the workmen, +Sam said to himself, "I will take up this trade. It may appeal to me. At +least I shall be selling forgetfulness and not be wasting my life with +this tramping on the road and thinking." + +The saloon in which he worked was a profitable one and although in an +obscure place had made its proprietor what is called "well fixed." It +had a side door opening into an alley and one went up this alley to the +main street of the town. The front door looking upon the railroad tracks +was but little used, perhaps at the noon hour two or three young men +from the freight depot down the tracks would come in by it and stand +about drinking beer, but the trade that came down the alley and in at +the side door was prodigious. All day long men hurried in at this door, +took drinks and hurried out again, looking up the alley and running +quickly when they found the way clear. These men all drank whiskey, and +when Sam had worked for a few days in the place he once made the mistake +of reaching for the bottle when he heard the door open. + +"Let them ask for it," said the proprietor gruffly. "Do you want to +insult a man?" + +On Saturday the place was filled all day with beer-drinking farmers, and +at odd hours on other days men came in, whimpering and begging drinks. +When alone in the place, Sam looked at the trembling fingers of these +men and put the bottle before them, saying, "Drink all you want of the +stuff." + +When the proprietor was in, the men who begged drinks stood a moment +by the stove and then went out thrusting their hands into their coat +pockets and looking at the floor. + +"Bar flies," the proprietor explained laconically. + +The whiskey was horrible. The proprietor mixed it himself and put it +into stone jars that stood under the bar, pouring it out of these into +bottles as they became empty. He kept on display in glass cases bottles +of well known brands of whiskey, but when a man came in and asked for +one of these brands Sam handed him a bottle bearing that label from +beneath the bar, a bottle previously filled by Al from the jugs of +his own mixture. As Al sold no mixed drinks Sam was compelled to know +nothing the bartender's art and stood all day handing out Al's poisonous +stuff and the foaming glasses of beer the workingmen drank in the +evening. + +Of the men coming in at the side door, a shoe merchant, a grocer, the +proprietor of a restaurant, and a telegraph operator interested Sam +most. Several times each day these men would appear, glance back over +their shoulders at the door, and then turning to the bar would look at +Sam apologetically. + +"Give me a little out of the bottle, I have a bad cold," they would say, +as though repeating a formula. + +At the end of the week Sam was on the road again. The rather bizarre +notion that by staying there he would be selling forgetfulness of life's +unhappiness had been dispelled during his first day's duty, and his +curiosity concerning the customers was his undoing. As the men came in +at the side door and stood before him Sam leaned over the bar and asked +them why they drank. Some of the men laughed, some swore at him, and the +telegraph operator reported the matter to Al, calling Sam's question an +impertinence. + +"You fool, don't you know better than to be throwing stones at the bar?" +Al roared, and with an oath discharged him. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +One fine warm morning in the fall Sam was sitting in a little park in +the centre of a Pennsylvania manufacturing town watching men and +women going through the quiet streets to the factories and striving to +overcome a feeling of depression aroused by an experience of the evening +before. He had come into town over a poorly made clay road running +through barren hills, and, depressed and weary, had stood on the shores +of a river, swollen by the early fall rains, that flowed along the edges +of the town. + +Before him in the distance he had looked into the windows of a huge +factory, the black smoke from which added to the gloom of the scene that +lay before him. Through the windows of the factory, dimly seen, workers +ran here and there, appearing and disappearing, the glare of the furnace +fire lighting now one, now another of them, sharply. At his feet the +tumbling waters that rolled and pitched over a little dam fascinated +him. Looking closely at the racing waters his head, light from physical +weariness, reeled, and in fear of falling he had been compelled to grip +firmly the small tree against which he leaned. In the back yard of a +house across the stream from Sam and facing the factory four guinea hens +sat on a board fence, their weird, plaintive cries making a peculiarly +fitting accompaniment to the scene that lay before him, and in the yard +itself two bedraggled fowls fought each other. Again and again they +sprang into the fray, striking out with bills and spurs. Becoming +exhausted, they fell to picking and scratching among the rubbish in the +yard, and when they had a little recovered renewed the struggle. For an +hour Sam had looked at the scene, letting his eyes wander from the river +to the grey sky and to the factory belching forth its black smoke. He +had thought that the two feebly struggling fowls, immersed in their +pointless struggle in the midst of such mighty force, epitomised much of +man's struggle in the world, and, turning, had gone along the sidewalks +and to the village hotel, feeling old and tired. Now on the bench in +the little park, with the early morning sun shining down through the +glistening rain drops clinging to the red leaves of the trees, he began +to lose the sense of depression that had clung to him through the night. + +A young man who walked in the park saw him idly watching the hurrying +workers, and stopped to sit beside him. + +"On the road, brother?" he asked. + +Sam shook his head, and the other began talking. + +"Fools and slaves," he said earnestly, pointing to the men and women +passing on the sidewalk. "See them going like beasts to their bondage? +What do they get for it? What kind of lives do they lead? The lives of +dogs." + +He looked at Sam for approval of the sentiment he had voiced. + +"We are all fools and slaves," said Sam, stoutly. + +Jumping to his feet the young man began waving his arms about. + +"There, you talk sense," he cried. "Welcome to our town, stranger. We +have no thinkers here. The workers are like dogs. There is no solidarity +among them. Come and have breakfast with me." + +In the restaurant the young man began talking of himself. He was a +graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. His father had died while he +was yet in school and had left him a modest fortune, upon the income of +which he lived with his mother. He did no work and was enormously proud +of the fact. + +"I refuse to work! I scorn it!" he declared, shaking a breakfast roll in +the air. + +Since leaving school he had devoted himself to the cause of the +socialist party in his native town, and boasted of the leadership he +had already achieved. His mother, he declared, was disturbed and worried +because of his connection with the movement. + +"She wants me to be respectable," he said sadly, and added, "What's the +use trying to explain to a woman? I can't get her to see the difference +between a socialist and a direct-action anarchist and I've given up +trying. She expects me to end by blowing somebody up with dynamite or by +getting into jail for throwing bricks at the borough police." + +He talked of a strike going on among some girl employés of a Jewish +shirtwaist factory in the town, and Sam, immediately interested, began +asking questions, and after breakfast went with his new acquaintance to +the scene of the strike. + +The shirtwaist factory was located in a loft above a grocery store, and +on the sidewalk in front of the store three girl pickets were walking up +and down. A flashily dressed Hebrew, with a cigar in his mouth and his +hands in his trousers pockets, stood in the stairway leading to the loft +and looked closely at the young socialist and Sam. From his lips came +a stream of vile words which he pretended to be addressing to the +empty air. When Sam walked towards him he turned and ran up the stairs, +shouting oaths over his shoulder. + +Sam joined the three girls, and began talking to them, walking up and +down with them before the grocery store. + +"What are you doing to win?" he asked when they had told him of their +grievances. + +"We do what we can!" said a Jewish girl with broad hips, great motherly +breasts, and fine, soft, brown eyes, who appeared to be a leader and +spokesman among the strikers. "We walk up and down here and try to get +a word with the strikebreakers the boss has brought in from other towns, +when they go in and come out." + +Frank, the University man, spoke up. "We are putting up stickers +everywhere," he said. "I myself have put up hundreds of them." + +He took from his coat pocket a printed slip, gummed on one side, and +told Sam that he had been putting them on walls and telegraph poles +about town. The thing was vilely written. "Down with the dirty scabs" +was the heading in bold, black letters across the top. + +Sam was shocked at the vileness of the caption and at the crude +brutality of the text printed on the slip. + +"Do you call women workers names like that?" he asked. + +"They have taken our work from us," the Jewish girl answered simply and +began again, telling the story of her sister strikers and of what the +low wage had meant to them and to their families. "To me it does not so +much matter; I have a brother who works in a clothing store and he can +support me, but many of the women in our union have only their wage here +with which to feed their families." + +Sam's mind began working on the problem. + +"Here," he declared, "is something definite to do, a battle in which I +will pit myself against this employer for the sake of these women." + +He put away from him his experience in the Illinois town, telling +himself that the young woman walking beside him would have a sense of +honour unknown to the red-haired young workman who had sold him out to +Bill and Ed. + +"I failed with my money," he thought, "now I will try to help these +girls with my energy." + +Turning to the Jewish girl he made a quick decision. + +"I will help you get your places back," he said. + +Leaving the girls he went across the street to a barber shop where he +could watch the entrance to the factory. He wanted to think out a method +of procedure and wanted also to look at the girl strikebreakers as +they came to work. After a time several girls came along the street and +turned in at the stairway. The flashily dressed Hebrew with the cigar +still in his mouth was again by the stairway entrance. The three pickets +running forward accosted the file of girls going up the stairs, one +of whom, a young American girl with yellow hair, turned and shouted +something over her shoulder. The man called Frank shouted back and the +Hebrew took the cigar out of his mouth and laughed heartily. Sam filled +and lighted his pipe, a dozen plans for helping the striking girls +running through his mind. + +During the morning he went into the grocery store on the corner, a +saloon in the neighbourhood, and returned to the barber shop talking to +men of the strike. He ate his lunch alone, still thinking of the three +girls patiently walking up and down before the stairway. Their ceaseless +walking seemed to him a useless waste of energy. + +"They should be doing something more definite," he thought. + +After lunch he joined the soft-eyed Jewish girl and together they walked +along the street talking of the strike. + +"You cannot win this strike by just calling nasty names," he said. "I +do not like that 'dirty scab' sticker Frank had in his pocket. It cannot +help you and only antagonises the girls who have taken your places. Here +in this part of town the people want to see you win. I have talked to +the men who come into the saloon and the barber shop across the street +and you already have their sympathy. You want to get the sympathy of the +girls who have taken your places. Calling them dirty scabs only makes +martyrs of them. Did the yellow-haired girl call you a name this +morning?" + +The Jewish girl looked at Sam and laughed bitterly. + +"Rather; she called me a loud-mouthed street walker." + +They continued their walk along the street, across the railroad track +and a bridge, and into a quiet residence street. Carriages stood at +the curb before the houses, and pointing to these and to the well-kept +houses Sam said, "Men have bought these things for their women." + +A shadow fell across the girl's face. + +"I suppose all of us want what these women have," she answered. "We do +not really want to fight and to stand on our own feet, not when we know +the world. What a woman really wants is a man," she added shortly. + +Sam began talking and told her of a plan that had come into his mind. +He had remembered how Jack Prince and Morrison used to talk about the +appeal of the direct personal letter and how effectively it was used by +mail order houses. + +"We will have a mail order strike here," he said and went on to lay +before her the details of his plan. He proposed that she, Frank, and +some others of the striking girls, should go about town getting the +names and the mail addresses of the girl strikebreakers. + +"Get also the names of the keepers of the boarding houses at which +these girls live and the names of the men and women who live in the +same houses," he suggested. "Then you get the striking girls and women +together and have them tell me their stories. We will write letters day +after day to the girl strikebreakers, to the women who keep the boarding +houses, and to the people who live in the houses and sit at table with +them. We won't call names. We will tell the story of what being beaten +in this fight means to the women in your union, tell it simply and +truthfully as you told it to me this morning." + +"It will cost such a lot," said the Jewish girl, shaking her head. + +Sam took a roll of bills from his pocket and showed it to her. + +"I will pay," he said. + +"Why?" she asked, looking at him sharply. + +"Because I am a man wanting work just as you want work," he replied, and +then went on hurriedly, "It is a long story. I am a rich man wandering +about the world seeking Truth. I will not want that known. Take me for +granted. You won't be sorry." + +Within an hour he had engaged a large room, paying a month's rent in +advance, and into the room chairs and table and typewriters had +been brought. He put an advertisement in the evening paper for girl +stenographers, and a printer, hurried by a promise of extra pay, ran out +for him several thousand letter heads across the top of which in bold, +black type ran the words, "The Girl Strikers." + +That night Sam held, in the room he had engaged, a meeting of the girl +strikers, explaining to them his plan and offering to pay all expenses +of the fight he proposed to make for them. They clapped their hands and +shouted approvingly, and Sam began laying out his campaign. + +One of the girls he told off to stand in front of the factory morning +and evening. + +"I will have other help for you there," he said. "Before you go home +to-night there will be a printer here with a bundle of pamphlets I am +having printed for you." + +Advised by the soft-eyed Jewish girl, he told off others to get +additional names for the mailing list he wanted, getting many important +ones from girls in the room. Six of the girls he asked to come in the +morning to help him with addressing and mailing letters. The Jewish girl +he told to take charge of the girls at work in the room--on the morrow +to become also an office--and to superintend getting the names. + +Frank rose at the back of the room. + +"Who are you anyway?" he asked. + +"A man with money and the ability to win this strike," Sam told him. + +"What are you doing it for?" demanded Frank. + +The Jewish girl sprang to her feet. + +"Because he believes in these women and wants to help," she explained. + +"Rot," said Frank, going out at the door. + +It was snowing when the meeting ended, and Sam and the Jewish girl +finished their talk in the hallway leading to her room. + +"I don't know what Harrigan, the union leader from Pittsburgh, will +say to this," she told him. "He appointed Frank to lead and direct the +strike here. He doesn't like interference and he may not like your plan. +But we working women need men, men like you who can plan and do things. +There are too many men living on us. We need men who will work for all +of us as the men work for the women in the carriages and automobiles." +She laughed and put out a hand to him. "See what you have got yourself +into? I want you to be a husband to our entire union." + +The next morning four girl stenographers went to work in Sam's strike +headquarters, and he wrote his first strike letter, a letter telling +the story of a striking girl named Hadaway, whose young brother was sick +with tuberculosis. Sam did not put any flourishes in the letter; he +felt that he did not need to. He thought that with twenty or thirty such +letters, each telling briefly and truthfully the story of one of the +striking girls, he should be able to show one American town how its +other half lived. He gave the letter to the four girl stenographers with +the mailing list he already had and started them writing it to each of +the names. + +At eight o'clock a man came in to install a telephone and girl strikers +began bringing in new names for the mailing list. At nine o'clock three +more stenographers appeared and were put to work, and girls who had been +in began sending more names over the 'phone. The Jewish girl walked up +and down, giving orders, making suggestions. From time to time she ran +to Sam's desk and suggested other sources of names for the mailing list. +Sam thought that if the other working girls were timid and embarrassed +before him this one was not. She was like a general on the field of +battle. Her soft brown eyes glowed, her mind worked rapidly, and her +voice had a ring in it. At her suggestion Sam gave the girls at the +typewriters lists bearing the names of town officials, bankers and +prominent business men, and the wives of all these, also presidents of +various women's clubs, society women, and charitable organizations. She +called reporters from the town's two daily papers and had them interview +Sam, and at her suggestion he gave them copies of the Hadaway girl +letter to print. + +"Print it," he said, "and if you cannot use it as news, make it an +advertisement and bring the bill to me." + +At eleven o'clock Frank came into the room bringing a tall Irishman, +with sunken cheeks, black, unclean teeth, and an overcoat too small for +him. Leaving him standing by the door, Frank walked across the room to +Sam. + +"Come to lunch with us," he said. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder +toward the tall Irishman. "I picked him up," he said. "Best brain that's +been in town for years. He's a wonder. Used to be a Catholic priest. +He doesn't believe in God or love or anything. Come on out and hear him +talk. He's great." + +Sam shook his head. + +"I am too busy. There is work to be done here. We are going to win this +strike." + +Frank looked at him doubtfully and then about the room at the busy +girls. + +"I don't know what Harrigan will think of all this," he said. "He +doesn't like interferences. I never do anything without writing him. +I wrote and told him what you were doing here. I had to, you know. I'm +responsible to headquarters." + +In the afternoon the Hebrew owner of the shirtwaist factory came in to +strike headquarters and, walking through the room took off his hat and +sat down by Sam's desk. + +"What do you want here?" he asked. "The newspaper boys told me of what +you had planned to do. What's your game?" + +"I want to whip you," Sam answered quietly, "to whip you good. You might +as well get into line. You are going to lose this strike." + +"I'm only one," said the Hebrew. "There is an association of us +manufacturers of shirtwaists. We are all in this. We all have a strike +on our hands. What will you gain if you do beat me here? I'm only a +little fellow after all." + +Sam laughed and picking up his pen began writing. + +"You are unlucky," he said. "I just happened to take hold here. When I +have you beaten I will go on and beat the others. There is more money +back of me than back of you all, and I am going to beat every one of +you." + +The next morning a crowd stood before the stairway leading to the +factory when the strikebreaking girls came to work. The letters and +the newspaper interview had been effective and more than half the +strikebreakers did not appear. The others hurried along the street and +turned in at the stairway without looking at the crowd. The girl, +told off by Sam, stood on the sidewalk passing out pamphlets to the +strikebreakers. The pamphlets were headed, "The Story of Ten Girls," and +told briefly and pointedly the stories of ten striking girls and what +the loss of the strike meant to them and to their families. + +After a while there drove up two carriages and a large automobile, and +out of the automobile climbed a well-dressed woman who took a bundle of +the pamphlets from the girl picket and began passing them about among +the people. Two policemen who stood in front of the crowd took off their +helmets and accompanied her. The crowd cheered. Frank came hurrying +across the street to where Sam stood in front of the barber shop and +slapped him on the back. + +"You're a wonder," he said. + +Sam hurried back to the room and prepared the second letter for the +mailing list. Two more stenographers had come to work. He had to send +out for more machines. A reporter for the town's evening paper ran up +the stairway. + +"Who are you?" he asked. "The town wants to know." + +From his pocket he took a telegram from a Pittsburgh daily. + +"What about mail-order strike plan? Give name and story new strike +leader there." + +At ten o'clock Frank returned. + +"There's a wire from Harrigan," he said. "He's coming here. He wants a +mass meeting of the girls for to-night. I've got to get them together. +We'll meet here in this room." + +In the room the work went on. The list of names for the mailing had +doubled. The picket at the shirtwaist factory reported that three more +of the strikebreakers had left the plant. The Jewish girl was excited. +She went hurrying about the room, her eyes glowing. + +"It's great," she said. "The plan is working. The whole town is aroused +and for us. We'll win in another twenty-four hours." + +And then at seven o'clock that night Harrigan came into the room where +Sam sat with the assembled girls, bolting the door behind him. He was a +short, strongly built man with blue eyes and red hair. He walked about +the room in silence, followed by Frank. Suddenly he stopped and, picking +up one of the typewriting machines rented by Sam for the letter writing, +raised it above his head and sent it smashing to the floor. + +"A hell of a strike leader," he roared. "Look at this. Scab machines! + +"Scab stenographers!" he said through his teeth. "Scab printing! Scab +everything!" + +Picking up a bundle of the letterheads, he tore them across, and walking +to the front of the room, shook his fist before Sam's face. + +"Scab leader!" he shouted, turning and facing the girls. + +The soft-eyed Jewish girl sprang to her feet. + +"He's winning for us," she said. + +Harrigan walked toward her threateningly. + +"Better lose than win a scab victory," he bellowed. + +"Who are you anyway? What grafter sent you here?" he demanded, turning +to Sam. + +He launched into a speech. "I have been watching this fellow, I know +him. He has a scheme to break down the union and is being paid by the +capitalists." + +Sam waited to hear no more. Getting up he pulled on his canvas jacket +and started for the door. He saw that already he had involved himself +in a dozen violations of the unionist code and the idea of trying to +convince Harrigan of his disinterestedness did not occur to him. + +"Do not mind me," he said, "I am going." + +He walked between the rows of frightened, white-faced girls and unbolted +the door, the Jewish girl following. At the head of the stairway leading +to the street he stopped and pointed back into the room. + +"Go back," he said, handing her a roll of bills. "Carry on the work +if you can. Get other machines and new printing. I will help you in +secret." + +Turning he ran down the stairs, hurried through the curious crowd +standing at the foot, and walked rapidly along in front of the lighted +stores. A cold rain, half snow, was falling. Beside him walked a young +man with a brown pointed beard, one of the newspaper reporters who had +interviewed him the day before. + +"Did Harrigan trim you?" asked the young man, and then added, laughing, +"He told us he intended to throw you down stairs." + +Sam walked on in silence, filled with wrath. He turned into a side +street and stopped when his companion put a hand upon his arm. + +"This is our dump," said the young man, pointing to a long low frame +building facing the side street. "Come in and let us have your story. It +should be a good one." + +Inside the newspaper office another young man sat with his head lying +on a flat-top desk. He was clad in a strikingly flashy plaid coat, had a +little wizened, good-natured face and seemed to have been drinking. The +young man with the beard explained Sam's identity, taking the sleeping +man by the shoulder and shaking him vigorously. + +"Wake up, Skipper! There's a good story here!" he shouted. "The union +has thrown out the mail-order strike leader!" + +The Skipper got to his feet and began shaking his head. + +"Of course, of course, Old Top, they would throw you out. You've got +some brains. No man with brains can lead a strike. It's against the laws +of Nature. Something was bound to hit you. Did Roughneck come out from +Pittsburgh?" he asked, turning to the young man of the brown beard. + +Then reaching above his head and taking a cap that matched his plaid +coat from a nail on the wall, he winked at Sam. "Come on, Old Top. I've +got to get a drink." + +The two men went through a side door and down a dark alley, going in +at the back door of a saloon. Mud lay deep in the alley and The Skipper +sloshed through it, splattering Sam's clothes and face. In the saloon at +a table facing Sam, with a bottle of French wine between them, he began +explaining. + +"I've a note coming due at the bank in the morning and no money to pay +it," he said. "When I have a note coming due I always have no money and +I always get drunk. Then next morning I pay the note. I don't know how +I do it, but I always come out all right. It's a system--Now about this +strike." He plunged into a discussion of the strike while men came in +and out, laughing and drinking. At ten o'clock the proprietor locked +the front door, drew the curtain, and coming to the back of the room sat +down at the table with Sam and The Skipper, bringing another bottle of +the French wine from which the two men continued drinking. + +"That man from Pittsburgh busted up your place, eh?" he said, turning +to Sam. "A man came in here to-night and told me. He sent for the +typewriter people and made them take away the machines." + +When they were ready to leave, Sam took money from his pocket and +offered to pay for the bottle of French wine ordered by The Skipper, who +arose and stood unsteadily on his feet. + +"Do you mean to insult me?" he demanded indignantly, throwing a +twenty-dollar bill on the table. The proprietor gave him back only +fourteen dollars. + +"I might as well wipe off the slate while you're flush," he observed, +winking at Sam. + +The Skipper sat down again, taking a pencil and pad of paper from his +pocket, and throwing them on the table. + +"I want an editorial on the strike for the Old Rag," he said to Sam. "Do +one for me. Do something strong. Get a punch into it. I want to talk to +my friend here." + +Putting the pad of paper on the table Sam began writing his newspaper +editorial. His head seemed wonderfully clear, his command of words +unusually good. He called the attention of the public to the situation, +the struggles of the striking girls and the intelligent fight they had +been making to win a just cause, following this with paragraphs pointing +out how the effectiveness of the work done had been annulled by the +position taken by the labour and socialist leaders. + +"These fellows at bottom care nothing for results," he wrote. "They are +not thinking of the unemployed women with families to support, they are +thinking only of themselves and their puny leadership which they fear +is threatened. Now we shall have the usual exhibition of all the old +things, struggle, and hatred and defeat." + +When he had finished The Skipper and Sam went back through the alley +to the newspaper office. The Skipper sloshed again through the mud +and carried in his hand a bottle of red gin. At his desk he took the +editorial from Sam's hands and read it. + +"Perfect! Perfect to the thousandth part of an inch, Old Top," he said, +pounding Sam on the shoulder. "Just what the Old Rag wanted to say about +the strike." Then climbing upon the desk and putting the plaid coat +under his head he went peacefully to sleep, and Sam, sitting beside the +desk in a shaky office chair, slept also. At daybreak a black man with a +broom in his hand woke them, and going into a long low room filled with +presses The Skipper put his head under a water tap and came back waving +a soiled towel and with water dripping from his hair. + +"Now for the day and the labours thereof," he said, grinning at Sam and +taking a long drink out of the gin bottle. + +After breakfast he and Sam took up their stand in front of the barber +shop opposite the stairway leading to the shirtwaist factory. Sam's girl +with the pamphlets was gone as was also the soft-eyed Jewish girl, and +in their places Frank and the Pittsburgh leader named Harrigan walked up +and down. Again carriages and automobiles stood by the curb, and again +a well-dressed woman got out of a machine and went toward three striking +girls approaching along the sidewalk. The woman was met by Harrigan, +shaking his fist and shouting, and getting back into the machine she +drove off. From the stairway the flashily-dressed Hebrew looked at the +crowd and laughed. + +"Where is the new strike leader--the mail-order strike leader?" he +called to Frank. + +With the words, a working man with a dinner pail on his arm ran out of +the crowd and knocked the Jew back into the stairway. + +"Punch him! Punch the dirty scab leader!" yelled Frank, dancing up and +down on the sidewalk. + +Two policemen running forward began leading the workingman up the +street, his dinner pail still clutched in one hand. + +"I know something," The Skipper shouted, pounding Sam on the shoulder. +"I know who will sign that note with me. The woman Harrigan drove back +into her machine is the richest woman in town. I will show her your +editorial. She will think I wrote it and it will get her. You'll see." +He ran off up the street, shouting back over his shoulder, "Come over to +the dump, I want to see you again." + +Sam returned to the newspaper office and sat down waiting for The +Skipper who, after a time, came in, took off his coat and began writing +furiously. From time to time he took long drinks out of the bottle of +red gin, and after silently offering it to Sam, continued reeling off +sheet after sheet of loosely-written matter. + +"I got her to sign the note," he called over his shoulder to Sam. "She +was furious at Harrigan and when I told her we were going to attack him +and defend you she fell for it quick. I won out by following my system. +I always get drunk and it always wins." + +At ten o'clock the newspaper office was in a ferment. The little man +with the brown pointed beard, and another, kept running to The Skipper +asking advice, laying typewritten sheets before him, talking as he +wrote. + +"Give me a lead. I want one more front page lead," The Skipper kept +bawling at them, working like mad. + +At ten thirty the door opened and Harrigan, accompanied by Frank, came +in. Seeing Sam they stopped, looking at him uncertainly, and at the man +at work at the desk. + +"Well, speak up. This is no ladies' reception room. What do you fellows +want?" snapped The Skipper, glaring at them. + +Frank, coming forward, laid a typewritten sheet on the desk, which the +newspaper man read hurriedly. + +"Will you use it?" asked Frank. + +The Skipper laughed. + +"Wouldn't change a word of it," he shouted. "Sure I'll use it. It's what +I wanted to make my point. You fellows watch me." + +Frank and Harrigan went out and The Skipper, rushing to the door, began +yelling into the room beyond. + +"Hey, you Shorty and Tom, I've got that last lead." + +Coming back to his desk he began writing again, grinning as he worked. +To Sam he handed the typewritten sheet prepared by Frank. + +"Dastardly attempt to win the cause of the working girls by dirty scab +leaders and butter-fingered capitalist class," it began, and after +this followed a wild jumble of words, words without meaning, sentences +without point in which Sam was called a mealy-mouthed mail-order musser +and The Skipper was mentioned incidentally as a pusillanimous ink +slinger. + +"I'll run the stuff and comment on it," declared The Skipper, handing +Sam what he had written. It was an editorial inviting the public to +read the article prepared for publication by the strike leaders and +sympathising with the striking girls that their cause had to be lost +because of the incompetence and lack of intelligence of their leaders. + +"Hurrah for Roughhouse, the brave man who leads working girls to defeat +in order that he may retain leadership and drive intelligent effort out +of the cause of labour," wrote The Skipper. + +Sam looked at the sheets and out of the window where a snow storm +raged. It seemed to him that a crime was being done and he was sick and +disgusted at his own inability to stop it. The Skipper lighted a short +black pipe and took his cap from a nail on the wall. + +"I'm the smoothest little newspaper thing in town and some financier as +well," he declared. "Let's go have a drink." + +After the drink Sam walked through the town toward the country. At the +edge of town where the houses became scattered and the road started to +drop away into a deep valley some one helloed behind him. Turning, he +saw the soft-eyed Jewish girl running along a path beside the road. + +"Where are you going?" he asked, stopping to lean against a board fence, +the snow falling upon his face. + +"I'm going with you," said the girl. "You're the best and the strongest +man I've ever seen and I'm not going to let you get away. If you've got +a wife it don't matter. She isn't what she should be or you wouldn't be +walking about the country alone. Harrigan and Frank say you're crazy, +but I know better. I am going with you and I'm going to help you find +what you want." + +Sam wondered. She took a roll of bills from a pocket in her dress and +gave it to him. + +"I spent three hundred and fourteen dollars," she said. + +They stood looking at each other. She put out a hand and laid it on his +arm. Her eyes, soft and now glowing with eager light looked into his. +Her round breasts rose and fell. + +"Anywhere you say. I'll be your servant if you ask it of me." + +A wave of hot desire ran through Sam followed by a quick reaction. He +thought of his months of weary seeking and his universal failure. + +"You are going back to town if I have to drive you there with stones," +he told her, and turning ran down the valley leaving her standing by the +board fence, her head buried in her arms. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +One crisp winter evening Sam found himself on a busy street corner in +Rochester, N.Y., watching from a doorway the crowds of people hurrying +or loitering past him. He stood in a doorway near a corner that seemed +to be a public meeting place and from all sides came men and women +who met at the corner, stood for a moment in talk, and then went away +together. Sam found himself beginning to wonder about the meetings. +In the year since he had walked out of the Chicago office his mind had +grown more and more reflective. Little things--a smile on the lips of +an ill-clad old man mumbling and hurrying past him on the street, or the +flutter of a child's hand from the doorway of a farmhouse--had furnished +him food for hours of thought. Now he watched with interest the little +incidents; the nods, the hand clasps, the hurried stealthy glances +around of the men and women who met for a moment at the corner. On the +sidewalk near his doorway several middle-aged men, evidently from a +large hotel around the corner, were eyeing, with unpleasant, hungry, +furtive eyes the women in the crowd. + +A large blond woman stepped into the doorway beside Sam. "Waiting for +some one?" she asked, smiling and looking steadily at him, with +the harried, uncertain, hungry light he had seen in the eyes of the +middle-aged men upon the sidewalk. + +"What are you doing here with your husband at work?" he ventured. + +She looked startled and then laughed. + +"Why don't you hit me with your fist if you want to jolt me like that?" +she demanded, adding, "I don't know who you are, but whoever you are I +want to tell you that I've quit my husband." + +"Why?" asked Sam. + +She laughed again and stepping over looked at him closely. + +"I guess you're bluffing," she said. "I don't believe you know Alf at +all. And I'm glad you don't. I've quit Alf, but he would raise Cain just +the same, if he saw me out here hustling." + +Sam stepped out of the doorway and walked down a side street past a +lighted theatre. Along the street women raised their eyes to him and +beyond the theatre, a young girl, brushing against him, muttered, +"Hello, Sport!" + +Sam wanted to get away from the unhealthy, hungry look he had seen in +the eyes of the men and women. His mind began working on this side of +the lives of great numbers of people in the cities--of the men and +women on the street corner, of the woman who from the security of a safe +marriage had once thrown a challenge into his eyes as they sat together +in the theatre, and of the thousand little incidents in the lives of +all modern city men and women. He wondered how much that eager, aching +hunger stood in the way of men's getting hold of life and living it +earnestly and purposefully, as he wanted to live it, and as he felt all +men and women wanted at bottom to live it. When he was a boy in +Caxton he was more than once startled by the flashes of brutality and +coarseness in the speech and actions of kindly, well-meaning men; now +as he walked in the streets of the city he thought that he had got past +being startled. "It is a quality of our lives," he decided. "American +men and women have not learned to be clean and noble and natural, like +their forests and their wide, clean plains." + +He thought of what he had heard of London, and of Paris, and of other +cities of the old world; and following an impulse acquired through his +lonely wanderings, began talking to himself. + +"We are no finer nor cleaner than these," he said, "and we sprang from +the big clean new land through which I have been walking all these +months. Will mankind always go on with that old aching, queerly +expressed hunger in its blood, and with that look in its eyes? Will +it never shrive itself and understand itself, and turn fiercely and +energetically toward the building of a bigger and cleaner race of men?" + +"It won't unless you help," came the answer from some hidden part of +him. + +Sam fell to thinking of the men who write, and of those who teach, and +he wondered why they did not, all of them, talk more thoughtfully of +vice, and why they so often spent their talents and their energies in +futile attacks upon some phase of life, and ended their efforts toward +human betterment by joining or promoting a temperance league, or +stopping the playing of baseball on Sunday. + +As a matter of fact were not many writers and reformers unconsciously +in league with the procurer, in that they treated vice and profligacy as +something, at bottom, charming? He himself had seen none of this vague +charm. + +"For me," he reflected, "there have been no François Villons or Sapphos +in the tenderloins of American cities. There have been instead only +heart-breaking disease and ill health and poverty, and hard brutal faces +and torn, greasy finery." + +He thought of men like Zola who saw this side of life clearly and how +he, as a young fellow in the city, had read the man at Janet Eberly's +suggestion and had been helped by him--helped and frightened and made +to see. And then there rose before him the leering face of a keeper of +a second-hand book store in Cleveland who some weeks before had pushed +across the counter to him a paper-covered copy of "Nana's Brother," +saying with a smirk, "That's some sporty stuff." And he wondered what he +should have thought had he bought the book to feed the imagination the +bookseller's comment was intended to arouse. + +In the small towns through which Sam walked and in the small town in +which he grew to manhood vice was openly crude and masculine. It went to +sleep sprawling across a dirty beer-soaked table in Art Sherman's saloon +in Piety Hollow, and the newsboy passed it without comment, regretting +that it slept and that it had no money with which to buy papers. + +"Dissipation and vice get into the life of youth," he thought, coming to +a street corner where young men played pool and smoked cigarettes in a +dingy poolroom, and turned back toward the heart of the city. "It gets +into all modern life. The farmer boy coming up to the city to work hears +lewd stories in the smoking car of the train, and the travelling men +from the cities tell tales of the city streets to the group about the +stove in village stores." + +Sam did not quarrel with the fact that youth touched vice. Such things +were a part of the world that men and women had made for their sons and +daughters to live in, and that night as he wandered in the streets of +Rochester he thought that he would like all youth to know, if they could +but know, truth. His heart was bitter at the thought of men throwing the +glamour of romance over the sordid, ugly things he had been seeing in +that city and in every city he had known. + +Past him in a street lined with small frame houses stumbled a man far +gone in drink, by whose side walked a boy, and Sam's mind leaped back to +those first years he had spent in the city and of the staggering old man +he had left behind him in Caxton. + +"You would think no man better armed against vice and dissipation than +that painter's son of Caxton," he reminded himself, "and yet he embraced +vice. He found, as all young men find, that there is much misleading +talk and writing on the subject. The business men he knew did not part +with able assistance because it did not sign the pledge. Ability was +too rare a thing and too independent to sign pledges, and the +lips-that-touch-liquor-shall-never-touch-mine sentiment among women was +reserved for the lips that did not invite." + +He began reviewing incidents of carouses he had been on with business +men of his acquaintance, of a policeman knocked into a street and of +himself, quiet and ably climbing upon tables to make speeches and +to shout the innermost secrets of his heart to drunken hangers-on in +Chicago barrooms. Normally he had not been a good mixer. He had been one +to keep himself to himself. But on these carouses he let himself go, +and got a reputation for daring audacity by slapping men on the back and +singing songs with them. A glowing cordiality had pervaded him and for +a time he had really believed there was such a thing as high flying vice +that glistens in the sun. + +Now stumbling past lighted saloons, wandering unknown in a city's +streets, he knew better. All vice was unclean, unhealthy. + +He remembered a hotel in which he had once slept, a hotel that admitted +questionable couples. Its halls had become dingy; its windows remained +unopened; dirt gathered in the corners; the attendants shuffled as they +walked, and leered into the faces of creeping couples; the curtains at +the windows were torn and discoloured; strange snarling oaths, screams, +and cries jarred the tense nerves; peace and cleanliness had fled the +place; men hurried through the halls with hats drawn down over their +faces; sunlight and fresh air and cheerful, whistling bellboys were +locked out. + +He thought of the weary, restless walks taken by the young men from +farms and country towns in the streets of the cities; young men +believers in the golden vice. Hands beckoned to them from doorways, and +women of the town laughed at their awkwardness. In Chicago he had walked +in that way. He also had been seeking, seeking the romantic, impossible +mistress that lurked at the bottom of men's tales of the submerged +world. He wanted his golden girl. He was like the naïve German lad in +the South Water Street warehouses who had once said to him--he was a +frugal soul--"I would like to find a nice-looking girl who is quiet and +modest and who will be my mistress and not charge anything." + +Sam had not found his golden girl, and now he knew she did not exist. He +had not seen the places called by the preachers the palaces of sin, and +now he knew there were no such places. He wondered why youth could not +be made to understand that sin is foul and that immorality reeks +of vulgarity. Why could not they be told plainly that there are no +housecleaning days in the tenderloin? + +During his married life men had come to the house who discussed this +matter. One of them, he remembered, had maintained stoutly that the +scarlet sisterhood was a necessity of modern life and that ordinary +decent social life could not go on without it. Often during the past +year Sam had thought of the man's talk and his brain had reeled before +the thought. In towns and on country roads he had seen troops of little +girls come laughing and shouting out of school houses, and had wondered +which of them would be chosen for that service to mankind; and now, in +his hour of depression, he wished that the man who had talked at his +dinner table might be made to walk with him and to share with him his +thoughts. + +Turning again into a lighted busy thoroughfare of the city, Sam +continued his study of the faces in the crowds. To do this quieted and +soothed his mind. He began to feel a weariness in his legs and thought +with gratitude that he should have a night of good sleep. The sea of +faces rolling up to him under the lights filled him with peace. "There +is so much of life," he thought, "it must come to some end." + +Looking intently at the faces, the dull faces and the bright faces, the +faces drawn out of shape and with eyes nearly meeting above the nose, +the faces with long, heavy sensual jaws, and the empty, soft faces on +which the scalding finger of thought had left no mark, his fingers +ached to get a pencil in his hand, or to spread the faces upon canvas +in enduring pigments, to hold them up before the world and to be able +to say, "Here are the faces you, by your lives, have made for yourselves +and for your children." + +In the lobby of a tall office building, where he stopped at a little +cigar counter to get fresh tobacco for his pipe, he looked so fixedly +at a woman clad in long soft furs, that in alarm she hurried out to her +machine to wait for her escort, who had evidently gone up the elevator. + +Once more in the street, Sam shuddered at the thought of the hands that +had laboured that the soft cheeks and the untroubled eyes of this one +woman might be. Into his mind came the face and figure of a little +Canadian nurse who had once cared for him through an illness--her quick, +deft fingers and her muscular little arms. "Another such as she," he +muttered, "has been at work upon the face and body of this gentlewoman; +a hunter has gone into the white silence of the north to bring out the +warm furs that adorn her; for her there has been a tragedy--a shot, and +red blood upon the snow, and a struggling beast waving its little claws +in the air; for her a woman has worked through the morning, bathing her +white limbs, her cheeks, her hair." + +For this gentlewoman also there had been a man apportioned, a man like +himself, who had cheated and lied and gone through the years in pursuit +of the dollars to pay all of the others, a man of power, a man who could +achieve, could accomplish. Again he felt within him a yearning for the +power of the artist, the power not only to see the meaning of the faces +in the street, but to reproduce what he saw, to get with subtle fingers +the story of the achievement of mankind into a face hanging upon a wall. + +In other days, in Caxton, listening to Telfer's talk, and in Chicago and +New York with Sue, Sam had tried to get an inkling of the passion of +the artist; now walking and looking at the faces rolling past him on the +long street he thought that he did understand. + +Once when he was new in the city he had, for some months, carried on an +affair with a woman, the daughter of a cattle farmer from Iowa. Now her +face filled his vision. How rugged it was, how filled with the message +of the ground underfoot; the thick lips, the dull eyes, the strong, +bullet-like head, how like the cattle her father had bought and sold. +He remembered the little room in Chicago where he had his first love +passage with this woman. How frank and wholesome it had seemed. How +eagerly both man and woman had rushed at evening to the meeting place. +How her strong hands had clasped him. The face of the woman in the motor +by the office building danced before his eyes, the face so peaceful, so +free from the marks of human passion, and he wondered what daughter of +a cattle raiser had taken the passion out of the man who paid for the +beauty of that face. + +On a side street, near the lighted front of a cheap theatre, a woman, +standing alone and half concealed in the doorway of a church, called +softly, and turning he went to her. + +"I am not a customer," he said, looking at her thin face and bony +hands, "but if you care to come with me I will stand a good dinner. I am +getting hungry and do not like eating alone. I want some one to talk to +me so that I won't get to thinking." + +"You're a queer bird," said the woman, taking his arm. "What have you +done that you don't want to think?" + +Sam said nothing. + +"There's a place over there," she said, pointing to the lighted front of +a cheap restaurant with soiled curtains at the windows. + +Sam kept on walking. + +"If you do not mind," he said, "I will pick the place. I want to buy +a good dinner. I want a place with clean linen on the table and a good +cook in the kitchen." + +They stopped at a corner to talk of the dinner, and at her suggestion he +waited at a near-by drug store while she went to her room. As he waited +he went to the telephone and ordered the dinner and a taxicab. When +she returned she had on a clean shirtwaist and had combed her hair. Sam +thought he caught the odour of benzine, and guessed she had been at work +on the spots on her worn jacket. She seemed surprised to find him still +waiting. + +"I thought maybe it was a stall," she said. + +They drove in silence to a place Sam had in mind, a road-house with +clean washed floors, painted walls, and open fires in the private +dining-rooms. Sam had been there several times during the month, and the +food had been well cooked. + +They ate in silence. Sam had no curiosity to hear her talk of herself, +and she seemed to have no knack of casual conversation. He was not +studying her, but had brought her as he had said, because of his +loneliness, and because her thin, tired face and frail body, looking out +from the darkness by the church door, had made an appeal. + +She had, he thought, a look of hard chastity, like one whipped but not +defeated. Her cheeks were thin and covered with freckles, like a boy's. +Her teeth were broken and in bad repair, though clean, and her hands had +the worn, hardly-used look of his own mother's hands. Now that she +sat before him in the restaurant, in some vague way she resembled his +mother. + +After dinner he sat smoking his cigar and looking at the fire. The woman +of the streets leaned across the table and touched him on the arm. + +"Are you going to take me anywhere after this--after we leave here?" she +said. + +"I am going to take you to the door of your room, that's all." + +"I'm glad," she said; "it's a long time since I've had an evening like +this. It makes me feel clean." + +For a time they sat in silence and then Sam began talking of his home +town in Iowa, letting himself go and expressing the thoughts that came +into his mind. He told her of his mother and of Mary Underwood and she +in turn told of her town and of her life. She had some difficulty about +hearing which made conversation trying. Words and sentences had to be +repeated to her and after a time Sam smoked and looked at the fire, +letting her talk. Her father had been a captain of a small steamboat +plying up and down Long Island Sound and her mother a careful, shrewd +woman and a good housekeeper. They had lived in a Rhode Island village +and had a garden back of their house. The captain had not married until +he was forty-five and had died when the girl was eighteen, the mother +dying a year later. + +The girl had not been much known in the Rhode Island village, being shy +and reticent. She had kept the house clean and helped the captain in +the garden. When her parents were dead she had found herself alone with +thirty-seven hundred dollars in the bank and the little home, and had +married a young man who was a clerk in a railroad office, and sold the +house to move to Kansas City. The big flat country frightened her. Her +life there had been unsuccessful. She had been lonely for the hills +and the water of her New England village, and she was, by nature, +undemonstrative and unemotional, so that she did not get much hold of +her husband. He had undoubtedly married her for the little hoard and, by +various devices, began getting it from her. A son had been born, for a +time her health broke badly, and she discovered through an accident that +her husband was spending her money in dissipation among the women of the +town. + +"There wasn't any use wasting words when I found he didn't care for me +or for the baby and wouldn't support us, so I left him," she said in a +level, businesslike way. + +When she came to count up, after she had got clear of her husband and +had taken a course in stenography, there was one thousand dollars of her +savings left and she felt pretty safe. She took a position and went to +work, feeling well satisfied and happy. And then came the trouble with +her hearing. She began to lose places and finally had to be content with +a small salary, earned by copying form letters for a mail order medicine +man. The boy she put out with a capable German woman, the wife of a +gardener. She paid four dollars a week for him and there was clothing +to be bought for herself and the boy. Her wage from the medicine man was +seven dollars a week. + +"And so," she said, "I began going on the street. I knew no one and +there was nothing else to do. I couldn't do that in the town where the +boy lived, so I came away. I've gone from city to city, working mostly +for patent medicine men and filling out my income by what I earned in +the streets. I'm not naturally a woman who cares about men and not many +of them care about me. I don't like to have them touch me with their +hands. I can't drink as most of the girls do; it sickens me. I want to +be left alone. Perhaps I shouldn't have married. Not that I minded my +husband. We got along very well until I had to stop giving him money. +When I found where it was going it opened my eyes. I felt that I had to +have at least a thousand dollars for the boy in case anything happened +to me. When I found there wasn't anything to do but just go on the +streets, I went. I tried doing other work, but hadn't the strength, and +when it came to the test I cared more about the boy than I did about +myself--any woman would. I thought he was of more importance than what I +wanted. + +"It hasn't been easy for me. Sometimes when I have got a man to go with +me I walk along the street praying that I won't shudder and draw away +when he touches me with his hands. I know that if I do he will go away +and I won't get any money. + +"And then they talk and lie about themselves. I've had them try to work +off bad money and worthless jewelry on me. Sometimes they try to make +love to me and then steal back the money they have given me. That's the +hard part, the lying and the pretence. All day I write the same lies +over and over for the patent-medicine men and then at night I listen to +these others lying to me." + +She stopped talking and leaning over put her cheek down on her hand and +sat looking into the fire. + +"My mother," she began again, "didn't always wear a clean dress. She +couldn't. She was always down on her knees scrubbing around the floor +or out in the garden pulling weeds. But she hated dirt. If her dress was +dirty her underwear was clean and so was her body. She taught me to be +that way and I wanted to be. It came naturally. But I'm losing it all. +All evening I have been sitting here with you thinking that my underwear +isn't clean. Most of the time I don't care. Being clean doesn't go with +what I am doing. I have to keep trying to be flashy outside so that men +will stop when they see me on the street. Sometimes when I have done +well I don't go on the streets for three or four weeks. Then I clean +up my room and bathe myself. My landlady lets me do my washing in the +basement at night. I don't seem to care about cleanliness the weeks I am +on the streets." + +The little German orchestra began playing a lullaby, and a fat German +waiter came in at the open door and put more wood on the fire. He +stopped by the table and talked about the mud in the road outside. From +another room came the silvery clink of glasses and the sound of laughing +voices. The girl and Sam drifted back into talk of their home towns. Sam +felt that he liked her very much and thought that if she had belonged to +him he should have found a basis on which to live with her contentedly. +She had a quality of honesty that he was always seeking in people. + +As they drove back to the city she put a hand on his arm. + +"I wouldn't mind about you," she said, looking at him frankly. + +Sam laughed and patted her thin hand. "It's been a good evening," he +said, "we'll go through with it as it stands." + +"Thanks for that," she said, "and there is something else I want to tell +you. Perhaps you will think it bad of me. Sometimes when I don't want to +go on the streets I get down on my knees and pray for strength to go on +gamely. Does it seem bad? We are a praying people, we New Englanders." + +As he stood in the street Sam could hear her laboured asthmatic +breathing as she climbed the stairs to her room. Half way up she stopped +and waved her hand at him. The thing was awkwardly done and boyish. +Sam had a feeling that he should like to get a gun and begin shooting +citizens in the streets. He stood in the lighted city looking down the +long deserted street and thought of Mike McCarthy in the jail at Caxton. +Like Mike, he lifted up his voice in the night. + +"Are you there, O God? Have you left your children here on the earth +hurting each other? Do you put the seed of a million children in a man, +and the planting of a forest in one tree, and permit men to wreck and +hurt and destroy?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +One morning, at the end of his second year of wandering, Sam got out +of his bed in a cold little hotel in a mining village in West Virginia, +looked at the miners, their lamps in their caps, going through the dimly +lighted streets, ate a portion of leathery breakfast cakes, paid his +bill at the hotel, and took a train for New York. He had definitely +abandoned the idea of getting at what he wanted through wandering about +the country and talking to chance acquaintances by the wayside and in +villages, and had decided to return to a way of life more befitting his +income. + +He felt that he was not by nature a vagabond, and that the call of the +wind and the sun and the brown road was not insistent in his blood. +The spirit of Pan did not command him, and although there were certain +spring mornings of his wandering days that were like mountain tops in +his experience of life, mornings when some strong, sweet feeling ran +through the trees, and the grass, and the body of the wanderer, and when +the call of life seemed to come shouting and inviting down the wind, +filling him with delight of the blood in his body and the thoughts in +his brain, yet at bottom and in spite of these days of pure joy he was, +after all, a man of the towns and the crowds. Caxton and South Water +Street and LaSalle Street had all left their marks on him, and so, +throwing his canvas jacket into a corner of the room in the West +Virginia hotel, he returned to the haunts of his kind. + +In New York he went to an uptown club where he owned a membership and +into the grill where he found at breakfast an actor acquaintance named +Jackson. + +Sam dropped into a chair and looked about him. He remembered a visit he +had made there some years before with Webster and Crofts and felt again +the quiet elegance of the surroundings. + +"Hello, Moneymaker," said Jackson, heartily. "Heard you had gone to a +nunnery." + +Sam laughed and began ordering a breakfast that made Jackson's eyes open +with astonishment. + +"You, Mr. Elegance, would not understand a man's spending month after +month in the open air seeking a good body and an end in life and then +suddenly changing his mind and coming back to a place like this," he +observed. + +Jackson laughed and lighted a cigarette. + +"How little you know me," he said. "I would live my life in the open but +that I am a mighty good actor and have just finished another long New +York run. What are you going to do now that you are thin and brown? Will +you go back to Morrison and Prince and money making?" + +Sam shook his head and looked at the quiet elegance of the man before +him. How satisfied and happy he looked. + +"I am going to try living among the rich and the leisurely," he said. + +"They are a rotten crew," Jackson assured him, "and I am taking a night +train for Detroit. Come with me. We will talk things over." + +On the train that night they got into talk with a broad-shouldered old +man who told them of a hunting trip on which he was bound. + +"I am going to sail from Seattle," he said, "and go everywhere and hunt +everything. I am going to shoot the head off of every big animal kind +of thing left in the world and then come back to New York and stay there +until I die." + +"I will go with you," said Sam, and in the morning left Jackson at +Detroit and continued westward with his new acquaintance. + +For months Sam travelled and shot with the old man, a vigorous, +big-hearted old fellow who, having become wealthy through an early +investment in stock of the Standard Oil Company, devoted his life to +his lusty, primitive passion for shooting and killing. They went on lion +hunts, elephant hunts and tiger hunts, and when on the west coast of +Africa Sam took a boat for London, his companion walked up and down the +beach smoking black cheroots and declaring the fun was only half over +and that Sam was a fool to go. + +After the year of the hunt royal Sam spent another year living the life +of a gentleman of wealth and leisure in London, New York, and Paris. He +went on automobile trips, fished and loafed along the shores of northern +lakes, canoed through Canada with a writer of nature books, and sat +about clubs and fashionable hotels listening to the talk of the men and +women of that world. + +Late one afternoon in the spring of the year he went to the village on +the Hudson River where Sue had taken a house, and almost immediately saw +her. For an hour he followed, watching her quick, active little figure +as she walked through the village streets, and wondering what life had +come to mean to her, but when, turning suddenly, she would have come +face to face with him, he hurried down a side street and took a train +to the city feeling that he could not face her empty-handed and ashamed +after the years. + +In the end he started drinking again, not moderately now, but steadily +and almost continuously. One night in Detroit, with three young men from +his hotel, he got drunk and was, for the first time since his parting +with Sue, in the company of women. Four of them, met in some restaurant, +got into an automobile with Sam and the three young men and rode +about town laughing, waving bottles of wine in the air, and calling to +passers-by in the street. They wound up in a diningroom in a place +at the edge of town, where the party spent hours around a long table, +drinking, and singing songs. + +One of the girls sat on Sam's lap and put an arm about his neck. + +"Give me some money, rich man," she said. + +Sam looked at her closely. + +"Who are you?" he asked. + +She began explaining that she was a clerk in a downtown store and that +she had a lover who drove a laundry wagon. + +"I go on these bats to get money to buy good clothes," she said frankly, +"but if Tim saw me here he would kill me." + +Putting a bill into her hand Sam went downstairs and getting into a +taxicab drove back to his hotel. + +After that night he went frequently on carouses of this kind. He was in +a kind of prolonged stupor of inaction, talked of trips abroad which +he did not take, bought a huge farm in Virginia which he never visited, +planned a return to business which he did not execute, and month after +month continued to waste his days. He would get out of bed at noon +and begin drinking steadily. As the afternoon passed he grew merry +and talkative, calling men by their first names, slapping chance +acquaintances on the back, playing pool or billiards with skilful young +men intent upon gain. In the early summer he got in with a party of +young men from New York and with them spent months in sheer idle waste +of time. Together they drove high-powered automobiles on long trips, +drank, quarrelled, and went on board a yacht to carouse, alone or with +women. At times Sam would leave his companions and spend days riding +through the country on fast trains, sitting for hours in silence looking +out of the window at the passing country and wondering at his endurance +of the life he led. For some months he carried with him a young man whom +he called a secretary and paid a large salary for his ability to tell +stories and sing clever songs, only to discharge him suddenly for +telling a foul tale that reminded Sam of another tale told by the +stoop-shouldered old man in the office of Ed's hotel in the Illinois +town. + +From being silent and taciturn, as during the months of his wanderings, +Sam became morose and combative. Staying on and on in the empty, aimless +way of life he had adopted he yet felt that there was for him a right +way of living and wondered at his continued inability to find it. He +lost his native energy, grew fat and coarse of body, was pleased for +hours by little things, read no books, lay for hours in bed drunk and +talking nonsense to himself, ran about the streets swearing vilely, grew +habitually coarse in thought and speech, sought constantly a lower and +more vulgar set of companions, was brutal and ugly with attendants about +hotels and clubs where he lived, hated life, but ran like a coward to +sanitariums and health resorts at the wagging of a doctor's head. + + + + +BOOK IV + + +CHAPTER I + + +One afternoon in early September Sam got on a westward-bound train +intending to visit his sister on the farm near Caxton. For years he had +heard nothing from Kate, but she had, he knew, two daughters, and he +thought he would do something for them. + +"I will put them on the Virginia farm and make a will leaving them +my money," he thought. "Perhaps I shall be able to make them happy by +setting them up in life and giving them beautiful clothes to wear." + +At St. Louis he got off the train, thinking vaguely that he would see +an attorney and make arrangements about the will, and for several days +stayed about the Planters Hotel with a set of drinking companions he had +picked up. One afternoon he began going from place to place drinking and +gathering companions. An ugly light was in his eyes and he looked at men +and women passing in the streets, feeling that he was in the midst of +enemies, and that for him the peace, contentment, and good cheer that +shone out of the eyes of others was beyond getting. + +In the late afternoon, followed by a troop of roistering companions, he +came out upon a street flanked with small, brick warehouses facing the +river, where steamboats lay tied to floating docks. + +"I want a boat to take me and my crowd for a cruise up and down the +river," he announced, approaching the captain of one of the boats. "Take +us up and down the river until we are tired of it. I will pay what it +costs." + +It was one of the days when drink would not take hold of him, and he +went among his companions, buying drinks and thinking himself a fool to +continue furnishing entertainment for the vile crew that sat about him +on the deck of the boat. He began shouting and ordering them about. + +"Sing louder," he commanded, tramping up and down and scowling at his +companions. + +A young man of the party who had a reputation as a dancer refused to +perform when commanded. Springing forward Sam dragged him out on the +deck before the shouting crowd. + +"Now dance!" he growled, "or I will throw you into the river." + +The young man danced furiously, and Sam marched up and down and looked +at him and at the leering faces of the men and women lounging along +the deck or shouting at the dancer. The liquor in him beginning to take +effect, a queerly distorted version of his old passion for reproduction +came to him and he raised his hand for silence. + +"I want to see a woman who is a mother," he shouted. "I want to see a +woman who has borne children." + +A small woman with black hair and burning black eyes sprang from the +group gathered about the dancer. + +"I have borne children--three of them," she said, laughing up into his +face. "I can bear more of them." + +Sam looked at her stupidly and taking her by the arm led her to a chair +on the deck. The crowd laughed. + +"Belle is after his roll," whispered a short, fat man to his companion, +a tall woman with blue eyes. + +As the steamer, with its load of men and women drinking and singing +songs, went up the river past bluffs covered with trees, the woman +beside Sam pointed to a row of tiny houses at the top of the bluffs. + +"My children are there. They are getting supper now," she said. + +She began singing, laughing and waving a bottle to the others sitting +along the deck. A youth with heavy features stood upon a chair and sang +a song of the street, and, jumping to her feet, Sam's companion kept +time with the bottle in her hand. Sam walked over to where the captain +stood looking up the river. + +"Turn back," he said, "I am tired of this crew." + +On the way back down the river the black-eyed woman again sat beside +Sam. + +"We will go to my house," she said quietly, "just you and me. I will +show you the kids." + +Darkness was gathering over the river as the boat turned, and in the +distance the lights of the city began blinking into view. The crowd had +grown quiet, sleeping in chairs along the deck or gathering in small +groups and talking in low tones. The black-haired woman began to tell +Sam her story. + +She was, she said, the wife of a plumber who had left her. + +"I drove him crazy," she said, laughing quietly. "He wanted me to stay +at home with him and the kids night after night. He used to follow me +down town at night begging me to come home. When I wouldn't come he +would go away with tears in his eyes. It made me furious. He wasn't a +man. He would do anything I asked him to do. And then he ran away and +left the kids on my hands." + +In the city Sam, with the black-haired woman beside him, rode about in +an open carriage, forgetting the children and going from place to place, +eating and drinking. For an hour they sat in a box at the theatre, but +grew tired of the performance and climbed again into the carriage. + +"We will go to my house. I want to have you alone," said the woman. + +They drove through street after street of workingmen's houses, where +children ran laughing and playing under the lights, and two boys, their +bare legs flashing in the lights from the lamps overhead, ran after +them, holding to the back of the carriage. + +The driver whipped the horses and looked back laughing. The woman got up +and kneeling on the seat of the carriage laughed down into the faces of +the running boys. + +"Run, you little devils," she cried. + +They held on, running furiously. Their legs twinkled and flashed under +the lights. + +"Give me a silver dollar," she said, turning to Sam, and when he had +given it to her, threw it ringing upon the pavement under a street lamp. +The two boys darted for it, shouting and waving their hands to her. + +Swarms of huge flies and beetles circled under the street lamps, +striking Sam and the woman in the face. One of them, a great black +crawling thing, alighted on her breast, and taking it in her hand she +crept forward and dropped it down the neck of the driver. + +In spite of his hard drinking during the afternoon and evening, Sam's +head was clear and a calm hatred of life burned in him. His mind ran +back over the years he had passed since breaking his word to Sue, and a +scorn of all effort burned in him. + +"It is what a man gets who goes seeking Truth," he thought. "He comes to +a fine end in life." + +On all sides of him life ran playing on the pavement and leaping in the +air. It circled and buzzed and sang above his head in the summer night +there in the heart of the city. Even in the sullen man sitting in the +carriage beside the black-haired woman it began to sing. The blood +climbed through his body; an old half-dead longing, half hunger, half +hope awoke in him, pulsating and insistent. He looked at the laughing, +intoxicated woman beside him and a feeling of masculine approval shot +through him. He began thinking of what she had said before the laughing +crowd on the steamer. + +"I have borne three children and can bear more." + +His blood, stirred by the sight of the woman, awoke his sleeping brain, +and he began again to quarrel with life and what life had offered him. +He thought that always he would stubbornly refuse to accept the call of +life unless he could have it on his own terms, unless he could command +and direct it as he had commanded and directed the gun company. + +"Else why am I here?" he muttered, looking away from the vacant, +laughing face of the woman and at the broad, muscular back of the driver +on the seat in front. "Why had I a brain and a dream and a hope? Why +went I about seeking Truth?" + +His mind ran on in the vein started by the sight of the circling beetles +and the running boys. The woman put her head upon his shoulder and her +black hair blew against his face. She struck wildly at the circling +beetles, laughing like a child when she had caught one of them in her +hand. + +"Men like me are for some end. They are not to be played with as I have +been," he muttered, clinging to the hand of the woman, who, also, he +thought, was being tossed about by life. + +Before a saloon, on a street where cars ran, the carriage stopped. +Through the open front door Sam could see working-men standing before +a bar drinking foaming glasses of beer, the hanging lamps above their +heads throwing their black shadows upon the floor. A strong, stale smell +came out at the door. The woman leaned over the side of the carriage and +shouted. "O Will, come out here." + +A man clad in a long white apron and with his shirt sleeves rolled to +his elbows came from behind the bar and talked to her, and when they had +started on she told Sam of her plan to sell her home and buy the place. + +"Will you run it?" he asked. + +"Sure," she said. "The kids can take care of themselves." + +At the end of a little street of a half dozen neat cottages, they got +out of the carriage and walked with uncertain steps along a sidewalk +skirting a high bluff and overlooking the river. Below the houses a +tangled mass of bushes and small trees lay black in the moonlight, and +in the distance the grey body of the river showed faint and far away. +The undergrowth was so thick that, looking down, one saw only the +tops of the growth, with here and there a grey outcrop of rocks that +glistened in the moonlight. + +Up a flight of stone steps they climbed to the porch of one of the +houses facing the river. The woman had stopped laughing and hung heavily +on Sam's arm, her feet groping for the steps. They passed through a door +and into a long, low-ceilinged room. An open stairway at the side of the +room went up to the floor above, and through a curtained doorway at the +end one looked into a small dining-room. A rag carpet lay on the floor +and about a table, under a hanging lamp at the centre, sat three +children. Sam looked at them closely. His head reeled and he clutched at +the knob of the door. A boy of perhaps fourteen, with freckles on his +face and on the backs of his hands and with reddish-brown hair and brown +eyes, was reading aloud. Beside him a younger boy with black hair and +black eyes, and with his knees doubled up on the chair in front of him +so that his chin rested on them, sat listening. A tiny girl, pale and +with yellow hair and dark circles under her eyes, slept in another +chair, her head hanging uncomfortably to one side. She was, one would +have said, seven, the black-haired boy ten. + +The freckle-faced boy stopped reading and looked at the man and woman; +the sleeping child stirred uneasily in her chair, and the black-haired +boy straightened out his legs and looked over his shoulder. + +"Hello, Mother," he said heartily. + +The woman walked unsteadily to the curtained doorway leading into the +dining-room and pulled aside the curtains. + +"Come here, Joe," she said. + +The freckle-faced boy arose and went toward her. She stood aside, +supporting herself with one hand grasping the curtain. As he passed +she struck him with her open hand on the back of the head, sending him +reeling into the dining-room. + +"Now you, Tom," she called to the black-haired boy. "I told you kids to +wash the dishes after supper and to put Mary to bed. Here it is past ten +and nothing done and you two reading books again." + +The black-haired boy got up and started obediently toward her, but Sam +walked rapidly past him and clutched the woman by the arm so that she +winced and twisted in his grasp. + +"You come with me," he said. + +He walked the woman across the room and up the stairs. She leaned +heavily on his arm, laughing, and looking up into his face. + +At the top of the stairway he stopped. + +"We go in here," she said, pointing to a door. + +He took her into the room. "You get to sleep," he said, and going out +closed the door, leaving her sitting heavily on the edge of the bed. + +Downstairs he found the two boys among the dishes in a tiny kitchen off +the dining-room. The little girl still slept uneasily in the chair by +the table, the hot lamp-light streaming down on her thin cheeks. + +Sam stood in the kitchen door looking at the two boys, who looked back +at him self-consciously. + +"Which of you two puts Mary to bed?" he asked, and then, without waiting +for an answer, turned to the taller of the two boys. "Let Tom do it," he +said. "I will help you here." + +Joe and Sam stood in the kitchen at work with the dishes; the boy, going +busily about, showed the man where to put the clean dishes, and got him +dry wiping towels. Sam's coat was off and his sleeves rolled up. + +The work went on in half awkward silence and a storm went on within +Sam's breast. When the boy Joe looked shyly up at him it was as though +the lash of a whip had cut down across flesh, suddenly grown tender. Old +memories began to stir within him and he remembered his own childhood, +his mother at work among other people's soiled clothes, his father Windy +coming home drunk, and the chill in his mother's heart and in his own. +There was something men and women owed to childhood, not because it +was childhood but because it was new life springing up. Aside from any +question of fatherhood or motherhood there was a debt to be paid. + +In the little house on the bluff there was silence. Outside the house +there was darkness and darkness lay over Sam's spirit. The boy Joe +went quickly about, putting the dishes Sam had wiped on the shelves. +Somewhere on the river, far below the house, a steamboat whistled. The +backs of the hands of the boy were covered with freckles. How quick and +competent the hands were. Here was new life, as yet clean, unsoiled, +unshaken by life. Sam was shamed by the trembling of his own hands. He +had always wanted quickness and firmness within his own body, the health +of the body that is a temple for the health of the spirit. He was an +American and down deep within himself was the moral fervor that is +American and that had become so strangely perverted in himself and +others. As so often happened with him, when he was deeply stirred, an +army of vagrant thoughts ran through his head. The thoughts had taken +the place of the perpetual scheming and planning of his days as a man of +affairs, but as yet all his thinking had brought him to nothing and had +only left him more shaken and uncertain then ever. + +The dishes were now all wiped and he went out of the kitchen glad to +escape the shy silent presence of the boy. "Has life quite gone from me? +Am I but a dead thing walking about?" he asked himself. The presence of +the children had made him feel that he was himself but a child, a grown +tired and shaken child. There was maturity and manhood somewhere abroad. +Why could he not come to it? Why could it not come into him? + +The boy Tom returned from having put his sister into bed and the two +boys said good night to the strange man in their mother's house. Joe, +the bolder of the two, stepped forward and offered his hand. Sam shook +it solemnly and then the younger boy came forward. + +"I'll be around here to-morrow I think," Sam said huskily. + +The boys were gone, into the silence of the house, and Sam walked up and +down in the little room. He was restless as though about to start on a +new journey and half unconsciously began running his hands over his body +wishing it strong and hard as when he tramped the road. As on the day +when he had walked out of the Chicago Club bound on his hunt for +Truth, he let his mind go so that it played freely over his past life, +reviewing and analysing. + +For hours he sat on the porch or walked up and down in the room where +the lamp still burned brightly. Again the smoke from his pipe tasted +good on his tongue and all the night air had a sweetness that brought +back to him the walk beside the bridle path in Jackson Park when Sue had +given him herself, and with herself a new impulse in life. + +It was two o'clock when he lay down upon a couch in the living-room and +blew out the light. He did not undress, but threw his shoes on the floor +and lay looking at a wide path of moonlight that came through the open +door. In the darkness it seemed that his mind worked more rapidly and +that the events and motives of his restless years went streaming past +like living things upon the floor. + +Suddenly he sat up and listened. The voice of one of the boys, heavy +with sleep, ran through the upper part of the house. + +"Mother! O Mother!" called the sleepy voice, and Sam thought he could +hear the little body moving restlessly in bed. + +Silence followed. He sat upon the edge of the couch, waiting. It seemed +to him that he was coming to something; that his brain that had for +hours been working more and more rapidly was about to produce the thing +for which he waited. He felt as he had felt that night as he waited in +the corridor of the hospital. + +In the morning the three children came down the stairs and finished +dressing in the long room, the little girl coming last, carrying her +shoes and stockings and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. A +cool morning wind blew up from the river and through the open screened +doors as he and Joe cooked breakfast, and later as the four of them +sat at the table Sam tried to talk but did not make much progress. His +tongue was heavy and the children seemed looking at him with strange +questioning eyes. "Why are you here?" their eyes asked. + +For a week Sam stayed in the city, coming daily to the house. With the +children he talked a little, and in the evening, when the mother had +gone away, the little girl came to him. He carried her to a chair on the +porch outside and while the boys sat reading under the lamp inside she +went to sleep in his arms. Her body was warm and the breath came softly +and sweetly from between her lips. Sam looked down the bluffside and saw +the country and the river far below, sweet in the moonlight. Tears came +into his eyes. Was a new sweet purpose growing within him or were the +tears but evidence of self pity? He wondered. + +One night the black-haired woman again came home far gone in drink, and +again Sam led her up the stairs to see her fall muttering and babbling +upon the bed. Her companion, a little flashily dressed man with a beard, +had run off at the sight of Sam standing in the living-room under the +lamp. The two boys, to whom he had been reading, said nothing, looking +self-consciously at the book upon the table and occasionally out of the +corner of their eyes at their new friend. In a few minutes they too +went up the stairs, and as on that first night, they put out their hands +awkwardly. + +Through the night Sam again sat in the darkness outside or lay awake on +the couch. "I will make a new try, adopt a new purpose in life now," he +said to himself. + +When the children had gone to school the next morning, Sam took a car +and went into the city, going first to a bank to have a large draft +cashed. Then he spent many busy hours going from store to store and +buying clothes, caps, soft underwear, suit cases, dresses, night +clothes, and books. Last of all he bought a large dressed doll. All +these things he had sent to his room at the hotel, leaving a man there +to pack the trunks and suit cases, and get them to the station. A large, +motherly-looking woman, an employé of the hotel, who passed through the +hall, offered to help with the packing. + +After another visit or two Sam got back upon the car and went again to +the house. In his pockets he had several thousands of dollars in large +bills. He had remembered the power of cash in deals he had made in the +past. + +"I will see what it will do here," he thought. + +In the house Sam found the black-haired woman lying on a couch in the +living-room. As he came in at the door she arose unsteadily and looked +at him. + +"There's a bottle in the cupboard in the kitchen," she said. "Get me a +drink. Why do you hang about here?" + +Sam brought the bottle and poured her a drink, pretending to drink with +her by putting the bottle to his lips and throwing back his head. + +"What was your husband like?" he asked. + +"Who? Jack?" she said. "Oh, he was all right. He was stuck on me. He +stood for anything until I brought men home here. Then he got crazy and +went away." She looked at Sam and laughed. + +"I didn't care much for him," she added. "He couldn't make money enough +for a live woman." + +Sam began talking of the saloon she intended buying. + +"The children will be a bother, eh?" he said. + +"I have an offer for the house," she said. "I wish I didn't have the +kids. They are a nuisance." + +"I have been figuring that out," Sam told her. "I know a woman in the +East who would take them and raise them. She is wild about kids. I +should like to do something to help you. I might take them to her." + +"In the name of Heaven, man, lead them away," she laughed, and took +another drink from the bottle. + +Sam drew from his pocket a paper he had secured from a downtown +attorney. + +"Get a neighbour in here to witness this," he said. "The woman will want +things regular. It releases you from all responsibility for the kids and +puts it on her." + +She looked at him suspiciously. "What's the graft? Who gets stuck for +the fares down east?" + +Sam laughed and going to the back door shouted to a man who sat under a +tree back of the next house smoking a pipe. + +"Sign here," he said, putting the paper before her. "Here is your +neighbour to sign as witness. You do not get stuck for a cent." + +The woman, half drunk, signed the paper, after a long doubtful look at +Sam, and when she had signed and had taken another drink from the bottle +lay down again on the couch. + +"If any one wakes me up for the next six hours they will get killed," +she declared. It was evident she knew little of what she had done, but +at the moment Sam did not care. He was again a bargainer, ready to take +an advantage. Vaguely he felt that he might be bargaining for an end in +life, for purpose to come into his own life. + +Sam went quietly down the stone steps and along the little street at +the brow of the hill to the car tracks, and at noon was waiting in an +automobile outside the door of the schoolhouse when the children came +out. + +He drove across the city to the Union Station, the three children +accepting him and all he did without question. At the station they found +the man from the hotel with the trunks and with three bright new suit +cases. Sam went to the express office and putting several bills into an +envelope sealed and sent it to the woman while the three children walked +up and down in the train shed carrying the cases, aglow with the pride +of them. + +At two o'clock Sam, with the little girl in his arms and with one of +the boys seated on either side of him, sat in a stateroom of a New York +flyer--bound for Sue. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Sam McPherson is a living American. He is a rich man, but his money, +that he spent so many years and so much of his energy acquiring, does +not mean much to him. What is true of him is true of more wealthy +Americans than is commonly believed. Something has happened to him +that has happened to the others also, to how many of the others? Men +of courage, with strong bodies and quick brains, men who have come of +a strong race, have taken up what they had thought to be the banner of +life and carried it forward. Growing weary they have stopped in a road +that climbs a long hill and have leaned the banner against a tree. Tight +brains have loosened a little. Strong convictions have become weak. Old +gods are dying. + + "It is only when you are torn from your mooring and + drift like a rudderless ship I am able to come + near to you." + +The banner has been carried forward by a strong daring man filled with +determination. + +What is inscribed on it? + +It would perhaps be dangerous to inquire too closely. We Americans have +believed that life must have point and purpose. We have called ourselves +Christians, but the sweet Christian philosophy of failure has been +unknown among us. To say of one of us that he has failed is to take life +and courage away. For so long we have had to push blindly forward. Roads +had to be cut through our forests, great towns must be built. What +in Europe has been slowly building itself out of the fibre of the +generations we must build now, in a lifetime. + +In our father's day, at night in the forests of Michigan, Ohio, +Kentucky, and on the wide prairies, wolves howled. There was fear in +our fathers and mothers, pushing their way forward, making the new land. +When the land was conquered fear remained, the fear of failure. Deep in +our American souls the wolves still howl. + + * * * * * + +There were moments after Sam came back to Sue, bringing the three +children, when he thought he had snatched success out of the very jaws +of failure. + +But the thing from which he had all his life been fleeing was still +there. It hid itself in the branches of the trees that lined the New +England roads where he went to walk with the two boys. At night it +looked down at him from the stars. + +Perhaps life wanted acceptance from him, but he could not accept. +Perhaps his story and his life ended with the home-coming, perhaps it +began then. + +The home-coming was not in itself a completely happy event. There was +a house with a fire at night and the voices of the children. In Sam's +breast there was a feeling of something alive, growing. + +Sue was generous, but she was not now the Sue of the bridle path in +Jackson Park in Chicago or the Sue who had tried to remake the world by +raising fallen women. On his arrival at her house, on a summer night, +coming in suddenly and strangely with the three strange children--a +little inclined toward tears and homesickness--she was flustered and +nervous. + +Darkness was coming on when he walked up the gravel path from the gate +to the house door with the child Mary in his arms and the two boys, Joe +and Tom, walking soberly and solemnly beside him. Sue had just come +out at the front door and stood regarding them, startled and a little +frightened. Her hair was becoming grey, but as she stood there Sam +thought her figure almost boyish in its slenderness. + +With quick generosity she threw aside the inclination in herself to ask +many questions but there was the suggestion of a taunt in the question +she did ask. + +"Have you decided to come back to me and is this your home-coming?" she +asked, stepping down into the path and looking not at Sam but at the +children. + +Sam did not answer at once, and little Mary began to cry. That was a +help. + +"They will all be wanting something to eat and a place to sleep," he +said, as though coming back to a wife, long neglected, and bringing with +him three strange children were an everyday affair. + +Although she was puzzled and afraid, Sue smiled and led the way into the +house. Lamps were lighted and the five human beings, so abruptly brought +together, stood looking at each other. The two boys clung to each other +and little Mary put her arms about Sam's neck and hid her face on his +shoulder. He unloosed her clutching hands and put her boldly into Sue's +arms. "She will be your mother now," he said defiantly, not looking at +Sue. + + * * * * * + +The evening was got through, blunderingly by himself, Sam thought, and +very nobly by Sue. + +There was the mother hunger still alive in her. He had shrewdly counted +on that. It blinded her eyes to other things and then a notion had come +into her head and there seemed the possibility of doing a peculiarly +romantic act. Before that notion was destroyed, later in the evening, +both Sam and the children had been installed in the house. + +A tall strong Negress came into the room, and Sue gave her instructions +regarding food for the children. "They will want bread and milk, and +beds must be found for them," she said, and then, although her mind was +still filled with the romantic notion that they were Sam's children +by some other woman, she took her plunge. "This is Mr. McPherson, my +husband, and these are our three children," she announced to the puzzled +and smiling servant. + +They went into a low-ceilinged room whose windows looked into a garden. +In the garden an old Negro with a sprinkling can was watering flowers. A +little light yet remained. Both Sam and Sue were glad there was no more. +"Don't bring lamps, a candle will do," Sue said, and she went to stand +near the door beside her husband. The three children were on the point +of breaking forth into sobs, but the Negro woman with a quick intuitive +sense of the situation began to chatter, striving to make the children +feel at home. She awoke wonder and hope in the breasts of the boys. +"There is a barn with horses and cows. To-morrow old Ben will show you +everything," she said, smiling at them. + + * * * * * + +A thick grove of elm and maple trees stood between Sue's house and a +road that went down a hill into a New England village, and while Sue and +the Negro woman put the children to bed, Sam went there to wait. In +the feeble light the trunks of trees could be dimly seen, but the thick +branches overhead made a wall between him and the sky. He went back into +the darkness of the grove and then returned toward the open space before +the house. + +He was nervous and distraught and two Sam McPhersons seemed struggling +for possession of his person. + +There was the man he had been taught by the life about him to bring +always to the surface, the shrewd, capable man who got his own way, +trampled people underfoot, went plunging forward, always he hoped +forward, the man of achievement. + +And then there was another personality, a quite different being +altogether, buried away within him, long neglected, often forgotten, a +timid, shy, destructive Sam who had never really breathed or lived or +walked before men. + +What of him? The life Sam had led had not taken the shy destructive +thing within into account. Still it was powerful. Had it not torn him +out of his place in life, made of him a homeless wanderer? How many +times it had tried to speak its own word, take entire possession of him. + +It was trying again now, and again and from old habit Sam fought against +it, thrusting it back into the dark inner caves of himself, back into +darkness. + +He kept whispering to himself. Perhaps now the test of his life had +come. There was a way to approach life and love. There was Sue. A basis +for love and understanding might be found with her. Later the impulse +could be carried on and into the lives of the children he had found and +brought to her. + +A vision of himself as a truly humble man, kneeling before life, +kneeling before the intricate wonder of life, came to him, but he was +again afraid. When he saw Sue's figure, dressed in white, a dim, pale, +flashing thing, coming down steps toward him, he wanted to run away, to +hide himself in the darkness. + +And he wanted also to run toward her, to kneel at her feet, not because +she was Sue but because she was human and like himself filled with human +perplexities. + +He did neither of the two things. The boy of Caxton was still alive +within him. With a boyish lift of the head he went boldly to her. +"Nothing but boldness will answer now," he kept saying to himself. + + * * * * * + +They walked in the gravel path before the house and he tried lamely to +tell his story, the story of his wanderings, of his seeking. When he +came to the tale of the finding of the children she stopped in the path +and stood listening, pale and tense in the half light. + +Then she threw back her head and laughed, nervously, half hysterically. +"I have taken them and you, of course," she said, after he had stepped +to her and had put his arm about her waist. "My life alone hasn't turned +out to be a very inspiring affair. I had made up my mind to take them +and you, in the house there. The two years you have been gone have +seemed like an age. What a foolish mistake my mind has made. I thought +they must be your own children by some other woman, some woman you had +found to take my place. It was an odd notion. Why, the older of the two +must be nearly fourteen." + +They went toward the house, the Negro woman having, at Sue's command, +found food for Sam and respread the table, but at the door he stopped +and excusing himself stepped again into the darkness under the trees. + +In the house lamps had been lighted and he could see Sue's figure +going through a room at the front of the house toward the dining-room. +Presently she returned and pulled the shades at the front windows. A +place was being prepared for him inside there, a shut-in place in which +he was to live what was left of his life. + +With the pulling of the shades darkness dropped down over the figure +of the man standing just within the grove of trees and darkness dropped +down over the inner man also. The struggle within him became more +intense. + +Could he surrender to others, live for others? There was the house +darkly seen before him. It was a symbol. Within the house was the woman, +Sue, ready and willing to begin the task of rebuilding their lives +together. Upstairs in the house now were the three children, three +children who must begin life as he had once done, who must listen to +his voice, the voice of Sue and all the other voices they would hear +speaking words in the world. They would grow up and thrust out into a +world of people as he had done. + +To what end? + +There was an end. Sam believed that stoutly. "To shift the load to the +shoulders of children is cowardice," he whispered to himself. + +An almost overpowering desire to turn and run away from the house, from +Sue who had so generously received him and from the three new lives into +which he had thrust himself and in which in the future he would have to +be concerned, took hold of him. His body shook with the strength of it, +but he stood still under the trees. "I cannot run away from life. I must +face it. I must begin to try to understand these other lives, to love," +he told himself. The buried inner thing in him thrust itself up. + +How still the night had become. In the tree beneath which he stood a +bird moved on some slender branch and there was a faint rustling of +leaves. The darkness before and behind was a wall through which he +must in some way manage to thrust himself into the light. With his hand +before him, as though trying to push aside some dark blinding mass, he +moved out of the grove and thus moving stumbled up the steps and into +the house. + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Windy McPherson's Son, by Sherwood Anderson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINDY MCPHERSON'S SON *** + +***** This file should be named 7443-8.txt or 7443-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/4/7443/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, John R. 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