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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gray Dawn, by Stewart Edward White
+
+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: The Gray Dawn
+
+Author: Stewart Edward White
+
+Illustrator: Thomas Fogarty
+
+Posting Date: August 11, 2012 [EBook #9149]
+Release Date: October, 2005
+First Posted: September 8, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAY DAWN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by C. Aldarondo, T. Vergon, J. Fairbanks and
+Online Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE GREY DAWN
+
+BY
+
+STEWART EDWARD WHITE
+
+
+Illustrated by Thomas Fogarty
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+They moved away, leaving Mrs. Morrell alone, biting her lips and
+planning revenges
+
+King listened to him in silence
+
+"Look here, don't try to come that rot. I said, get out--and I mean it!"
+
+"Call all you please," he sneered. "Nobody's going to pay any attention
+to your calls at Jake's Place!"
+
+OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
+
+
+THE CLAIM JUMPERS THE WESTERNERS THE BLAZED TRAIL ARIZONA NIGHTS BLAZED
+TRAIL STORIES THE CABIN CAMP AND TRAIL CONJUROR'S HOUSE THE FOREST THE
+SIGN AT SIX THE RULES OF THE GAME
+
+THE RIVERMAN THE SILENT PLACES THE ADVENTURES OF BOBBY ORDE THE
+MOUNTAINS THE PASS THE MAGIC FOREST THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS AFRICAN CAMP
+FIRES THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY GOLD THE MYSTERY
+  (With Samuel Hopkins Adams)
+
+
+THE GRAY DAWN
+
+
+PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN TALE
+
+MILTON KEITH: a young lawyer from Baltimore. NAN KEITH: his wife. JOHN
+SHERWOOD: a gambler. PATSY SHERWOOD: his wife. ARTHUR MORRELL: an
+English adventurer. MIMI MORRELL: his wife or mistress. BEN SANSOME: a
+lady-killer, destined to become an "old beau." W. T. COLEMAN, or "old
+Vigilante," a leader. DAVID TERRY: a leader on the other side. JAMES
+KING OF WILLIAM: a modern Crusader. THE SPIRIT OF SAN FRANCISCO
+    AND OTHERS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+On the veranda of the Bella Union Hotel, San Francisco, a man sat
+enjoying his morning pipe. The Bella Union overlooked the Plaza of that
+day, a dusty, unkempt, open space, later to be swept and graded and
+dignified into Portsmouth Square. The man was at the younger fringe of
+middle life. He was dressed neatly and carefully in the fashionable
+costume of the time, which was the year of grace 1852. As to
+countenance, he was square and solid; as to physique, he was the same;
+as to expression, he inclined toward the quietly humorous; in general
+he would strike the observer as deliberately, philosophically
+competent. A large pair of steelbound spectacles sat halfway down his
+nose. Sometimes he read his paper through their lenses; and sometimes,
+forgetting, he read over the tops of their bows. The newspaper he held
+was an extraordinary document. It consisted of four large pages. The
+outside page was filled solidly with short eight or ten line
+advertisements; the second page grudgingly vouchsafed a single column
+of news items; the third page warmed to a column of editorial and
+another of news; all the rest of the space on these and the entire
+fourth page was again crowded close with the short advertisements. They
+told of the arrival of ships, the consignment of goods, the movements
+of real estate, the sales of stock, but mainly of auctions. The man
+paid little attention to the scanty news, and none at all to the
+editorials. His name was John Sherwood, and he was a powerful and
+respected public gambler.
+
+The approach across the Plaza of a group of men caused him to lay aside
+his paper, and with it his spectacles. The doffing of the latter
+strangely changed his whole expression. The philosophical middle-aged
+quietude fell from him. He became younger, keener, more alert. It was
+as though he had removed a disguise.
+
+The group approaching were all young men, and all dressed in the height
+of fashion. At that rather picturesque time this implied the
+flat-brimmed beaver hat; the long swallowtail, or skirted coat; the
+tight "pantaloons"; varicoloured, splendid, low-cut waistcoats of
+satin, of velvet, or of brocade; high wing collars; varnished boots;
+many sparkling, studs and cravat pins; rather longish hair; and
+whiskers cut close to the cheek or curling luxuriantly under the chin.
+They were prosperous, well-fed, arrogant-looking youths, carrying their
+crests high, the light of questing recklessness in their eyes, ready to
+laugh, drink, or fight with anybody. At sight of Sherwood they waved
+friendly hands, and canes, and veered in his direction.
+
+"Yo're just the man we are looking for!" cried a tall, dark, graceful
+young fellow, "We are all 'specially needful of wisdom. The drinks are
+on some one, and we cain't decide who."
+
+John Sherwood, his keen eyes twinkling, set his chair down on four legs.
+
+"State your case, Cal," he said.
+
+Cal waved a graceful hand at a stout, burly, red-faced man whose thick
+blunt fingers, square blue jowl, and tilted cigar gave the flavour of
+the professional politician. "John Webb, here-excuse _me_, Sheriff John
+Webb-presumin' on the fact that he has been to the mines, and that he
+came here in '49, arrogates to himself the exclusive lyin' privileges,
+of this assemblage."
+
+"Pretty large order," commented Sherwood.
+
+"_Pre_cisely," agreed Cal, "and that's why the drinks are on him!"
+
+But Sheriff Webb, who had been chuckling cavernously inside his bulky
+frame, spoke up in a harsh and husky voice: "I told them an innocent
+experience of mine, and they try to hold me up for drinks. I don't
+object to giving them a reasonable amount of drinks--what _I_ call
+reasonable," he added hastily, "but I object to being held up."
+
+"He says he used to cook," put in a small, alert, nervous, rather
+flashily dressed individual named Rowlee, editor of the _Bugle_.
+
+"I did!" stoutly asseverated Webb.
+
+"And that he baked a loaf of bread so hard nobody could eat it."
+
+"Sounds perfectly reasonable," said Sherwood.
+
+"And that nobody could _break_ it," Rowlee went on.
+
+"I have no difficulty in believing that," said Sherwood judicially.
+"Your case is mighty weak yet, Cal."
+
+"But he claims it was so hard that they used it for a grindstone."
+
+"I did not!" disclaimed Webb indignantly.
+
+An accusing groan met this statement.
+
+"I tell you I didn't say anything of the kind," roared Webb, his bull
+voice overtopping them all.
+
+"Well, what did you say, then?" challenged Calhoun Bennett.
+
+"I said we tried to use her as a grindstone," said Webb, "but it didn't
+work."
+
+"Weak case, boys; weak case," said Sherwood.
+
+The little group, their eyes wide, their nostrils distended, waited
+accusingly for Webb to proceed. After an interval, the sheriff, staring
+critically at the lighted end of his cigar, went on in a drawling voice:
+
+"Yes, we, couldn't get a hole through her to hang her axle on. We
+blunted all our drills. Every Sunday we'd try a new scheme. Finally we
+laid her flat under a tree and rigged a lightnin' rod down to the
+centre of her. No use. She tore that lightning all to pieces."
+
+He looked up at them with a limpid, innocent eye, to catch John
+Sherwood gazing at him accusingly.
+
+"John Webb," said he "you forget that I came out here in, '48. On your
+honour, do you expect _me_ to believe that yarn?"
+
+"Well," said Webb, gazing again at his cigar end, "no--really I don't.
+The fact is," he went on with a perfectly solemn air of confidence,
+"the fact is, I've lived out here so long and told so many damn lies
+that now without some help I don't know when to believe myself."
+
+"Do we get that drink?" insisted Calhoun Bennett.
+
+"Oh, Lord, yes, you always get a drink."
+
+"Well, come on and _get_ it then--you, too, of course, Mr. Sherwood."
+
+The gambler arose, and began leisurely to fold his paper and to put
+away his spectacles.
+
+"I see you got Mex Ryan off, Cal," he observed. "You either had
+extraordinary luck, or you're a mighty fine lawyer. Looked like a clear
+case to me. He just naturally went in and beat Rucker half to death in
+his own store. How did you do it?"
+
+"I assure yo' it was no sinecure," laughed the tall, dark youth. "I
+earned my fee."
+
+"Yes," grumbled Webb, "but he got six months--and I got to take care of
+him. Cluttering up my jail with dirty beasts like Mex Ryan! Could just
+as easy have turned him loose!"
+
+"That would have been a little too much!" smiled Bennett. "It was
+takin' some risk to let him off as easy as we did. It isn't so long
+since the Vigilantes."
+
+"Oh, hell, we can handle that sort of trash now," snorted Webb.
+
+"Who was backing Mex, anyway?" asked Rowlee curiously.
+
+"Better ask who had it in for Rucker," suggested the fourth member of
+the group, a man who had not heretofore spoken. This was Dick
+Blatchford, a round-faced, rather corpulent, rather silent though
+jovial-looking individual, with a calculating and humorous eye. He was
+magnificently apparelled, but rather untidy.
+
+"Well, I do ask it," said Rowlee.
+
+But to this he got no response.
+
+"Come on, ain't you got that valuable paper folded up yet?" rumbled
+Webb to Sherwood.
+
+They all turned down the high-pillared veranda, toward the bar, talking
+idly and facetiously of last night's wine and this morning's head. A
+door opened at their very elbow, and in it a woman appeared.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+She was a slender woman, of medium height, with a small, well-poised
+head, on which the hair lay smooth and glossy. Her age was somewhere
+between thirty and thirty-five years. A stranger would have been first
+of all impressed by the imperious carriage of her head and shoulders,
+the repose of her attitude. Become a friend or a longer acquaintance,
+he would have noticed more particularly her wide low brow, her steady
+gray eyes and her grave but humorous lips. But inevitably he would have
+gone back at last to her more general impression. Ben Sansome, the only
+man in town who did nothing, made society and dress a profession and
+the judgment of women a religion, had long since summed her up: "She
+carries her head charmingly."
+
+This poised, wise serenity of carriage was well set off by the costume
+of the early fifties--a low collar, above which her neck rose like a
+flower stem; flowing sleeves; full skirts with many silken petticoats
+that whispered and rustled; low sandalled shoes, their ties crossed and
+recrossed around white slender ankles. A cameo locket, hung on a heavy
+gold chain, rose and fell with her breast; a cameo brooch pinned
+together the folds of her bodice; massive and wide bracelets of gold
+clasped her wrists and vastly set off her rounded, slender forearms.
+
+She stood quite motionless in the doorway, nodding with a little smile
+in response to the men's sweeping salutes.
+
+"You will excuse me gentlemen, I am sure," said Sherwood formally, and
+instantly turned aside.
+
+The woman in the doorway thereupon preceded him down a narrow, bare,
+unlighted hallway, opened another door, and entered a room. Sherwood
+followed, closing the door after him.
+
+"Want something, Patsy?" he inquired.
+
+The room was obviously one of the best of the Bella Union. That is to
+say, it was fairly large, the morning sun streamed in through its two
+windows, and it contained a small iron stove. In all other respects it
+differed quite from any other hotel room in the San Francisco of that
+time. A heavy carpet covered the floor, the upholstery was of leather
+or tapestry, wall paper adorned the walls, a large table supported a
+bronze lamp and numerous books and papers, a canary, in a brass cage,
+hung in the sunshine of one of the windows, flitted from perch to
+perch, occasionally uttering a few liquid notes under its breath.
+
+"Just a little change, Jack, if you have some with you," said the
+woman. Her speaking voice was rich and low.
+
+Sherwood thrust a forefinger into his waistcoat pocket, and produced
+one of the hexagonal slugs of gold current at that time.
+
+"Oh, not so much!" she protested.
+
+"All I've got. What are you up to to-day, Patsy?"
+
+"I thought of going down to Yet Lee's--unless there is something better
+to do."
+
+"Doesn't sound inspiring. Did you go to that fair or bazaar thing
+yesterday?"
+
+She smiled with her lips, but her eyes darkened.
+
+"Yes, I went. It was not altogether enjoyable. I doubt if I'll try that
+sort of thing again."
+
+Sherwood's eye suddenly became cold and dangerous.
+
+"If they didn't treat you right--"
+
+She smiled, genuinely this time, at his sudden truculence.
+
+"They didn't mob me," she rejoined equably, "and, anyway, I suppose it
+is to be expected."
+
+"It's that cat of Morrell's," he surmised.
+
+"Oh, she--and others. I ought not to have spoken of it, Jack. It's
+really beneath the contempt of sensible people."
+
+"I'll get after Morrell, if he doesn't make that woman behave," said
+Sherwood, without attention to her last speech.
+
+She smiled at him again, entirely calm and reasonable.
+
+"And what good would it do to get after Morrell?" she asked. "Mrs.
+Morrell only stands for what most of them feel. I don't care, anyway. I
+get along splendidly without them." She sauntered over to the window,
+where she began idly to poke one finger at the canary.
+
+"For the life of me, Patsy," confessed Sherwood, "I can't see that
+they're an inspiring lot, anyway. From what little I've seen of them,
+they haven't more than an idea apiece. They'd bore me to death in a
+week."
+
+"I know that. They'd bore me, too. Don't talk about them. When do they
+expect the _Panama_--do you know?"
+
+But with masculine persistence he refused to abandon the topic.
+
+"I must confess I don't see the point," he insisted. "You've got more
+brains than the whole lot of them together, you've got more sense,
+you're a lot better looking"--he surveyed her, standing in the full
+light by the canary's cage, her little glossy head thrown back, her
+pink lips pouted teasingly at the charmed and agitated bird, her fine
+clear features profiled in the gold of the sunshine--"and you're a
+thoroughbred, egad, which most of them are not."
+
+"Oh, thank you, kind sir." She threw him a humourous glance. "But of
+course that is not the point."
+
+"Oh, isn't it? Well, perhaps you'll tell me the point."
+
+She left the canary and came to face him.
+
+"I'm not respectable," she said.
+
+At the word he exploded.
+
+"Respectable? What are you talking about? You talk as though--as though
+we weren't married, egad!"
+
+"Well, Jack," she replied, a faint mocking smile curving the corners of
+her mouth, "when it comes to that, we _did_ elope, you'll have to
+acknowledge. And we weren't married for quite a long time afterward."
+
+"We got married as soon as we could, didn't we?" he cried indignantly.
+"Was it our fault that we didn't get married sooner? And what
+difference did it make, anyway?"
+
+"Now don't get all worked up," she chided. "I'm just telling you why,
+in the eyes of some of these people, I'm not 'respectable.' You asked
+me, you know."
+
+"Go on," he conceded to this last.
+
+"Well, we ran away and weren't married. That's item one. Then perhaps
+you've forgotten that I sat on lookout for some of your games in the
+early days in the mining camps?"
+
+"Forgotten?" said Sherwood, the light of reminiscence springing to his
+eyes.
+
+The same light had come into hers.
+
+"Will you _ever_ forget," she murmured, "the camps by the summer
+streams, the log towns, the lights, the smoke, the freedom--the
+comradeship--"
+
+"Homesick for the old rough days?" he teased.
+
+"Kind of," she confessed. "But it wasn't 'respectable'--a--well, a
+_fairly_ good-looking woman in a miner's saloon."
+
+He flared again.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me they dare say--"
+
+"They dare say anything--behind our backs," she said, with cool
+contempt. "It's all drivelling nonsense. I care nothing about it. But
+you asked me. Don't bother your head about it. Have you anything to
+suggest doing this morning, instead of Yet Lee's?" She turned away from
+him toward the door leading into another room. "I'll get my hat," she
+said over her shoulder.
+
+"Look here, Patsy," said Sherwood, rather grimly, "if you want to get
+in with that lot, you shall."
+
+She stopped at this, and turned square around.
+
+"If I do--when I do--I will," she replied. "But, John Sherwood, you
+mustn't interfere--never in the world! Promise!" She stood there,
+almost menacing in her insistence, evidently resolved to nip this
+particularly masculine resolution in the bud.
+
+"Egad, Patsy," cried Sherwood, "you are certainly a raving beauty!"
+
+He covered the ground between them in two strides, and crushed her in
+his arms. She threw her head back for his kiss.
+
+A knock sounded, and almost immediately a very black, very
+bullet-headed young negro thrust his head in at the door.
+
+"Sam," said Sherwood deliberately, "some day I'm going to kill you!"
+
+"Yes, sah! yes, sah!" agreed Sam heartily.
+
+"Well, what the devil do you want?"
+
+"Th' _Panama_ done been, signalled; yes, sah!" said the negro, but
+without following his head through the door.
+
+"Well, what the devil do you suppose I care, you black limb?" roared
+Sherwood, "and what do you mean coming in here before you're told?"
+
+"Yes, sah! yes, sah, dat's right," ducked Sam, "Shell I awdah the team,
+sah?"
+
+"I suppose we might as well go see her docked. Would you like it?" he
+asked his wife.
+
+"I'd love it."
+
+"Then get the team. And some day I'm going to kill you."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Mrs. Sherwood prepared herself first of all by powdering her nose. This
+simple operation, could it have been seen by the "respectable" members
+of the community, would in itself have branded her as "fast," In those
+days cosmetics of any sort were by most considered inventions of the
+devil. It took extraordinary firmness of character even to protect
+one's self against sunburn by anything more artificial than the shadow
+of a hat or a parasol. Then she assumed a fascinating little round hat
+that fitted well down over her small head. This, innocent of pins, was
+held on by an elastic at the back. A ribbon, hanging down directly in
+front, could be utilized to steady it in a breeze.
+
+"All ready," she announced, picking up a tiny parasol, about big enough
+for a modern doll. "You may carry my mantle."
+
+Near the foot of the veranda steps waited Sam at the heads of a pair of
+beautiful, slim, satiny horses. Their bay coats had been groomed until
+they rippled and sparkled with every movement of the muscles beneath.
+Wide red-lined nostrils softly expanded and contracted with a
+restrained eagerness; and soft eyes rolled in the direction of the
+Sherwoods--keen, lithe, nervous, high-strung creatures, gently stamping
+little hoofs, impatiently tossing dainty heads, but nevertheless making
+no movement that would stir the vehicle that stood "cramped" at the
+steps. Their harness carried no blinders; their tails, undocked, swept
+the ground; but their heads were pulled into the air by the old stupid
+overhead check reins until their noses pointed almost straight ahead.
+It gave them rather a haughty air.
+
+Sherwood stepped in first, took the reins in one hand, and offered his
+other hand to his wife. Sam instantly left the horses' heads to hold a
+wicker contrivance against the arc of the wheels. This was to protect
+skirts from dusty tires. Mrs. Sherwood settled as gracefully to her
+place as a butterfly on its flower. Sam snatched away the wicker
+guards. Sherwood spoke to the horses. With a purring little snort they
+moved smoothly away. The gossamerlike wheels threw the light from their
+swift spokes. Sam, half choked by the swirl of dust, gazed after them.
+Sherwood, leaning slightly forward against the first eagerness of the
+animals, showed a strong, competent, arresting figure, with his beaver
+hat, his keen grim face, his snow-white linen, and the blue of his
+brass-buttoned-coat. The beautiful horses were stepping as one, a
+delight to the eye, making nothing whatever of the frail vehicle at
+their heels. But Sam's eye lingered longest on the small stately figure
+of his mistress. She sat very straight, her head high, the little
+parasol poised against the sun, the other hand clasping the hat ribbon.
+
+"Dem's quality foh sure!" said Sam with conviction.
+
+Sherwood drove rapidly around the edge of the Plaza and, so into
+Kearney Street. From here to the water front were by now many fireproof
+brick and stone structures, with double doors and iron shatters, like
+fortresses. So much had San Francisco learned from her five disastrous
+fires. The stone had come from China, the brick also from overseas.
+Down side streets one caught glimpses of huge warehouses--already in
+this year of 1852 men talked of the open-air auctions of three years
+before as of something in history inconceivably remote. The streets,
+where formerly mule teams had literally been drowned in mud, now were
+covered with planking. This made a fine resounding pavement. Horses'
+hoofs went merrily _klop, klop, klop_, and the wheels rumbled a dull
+undertone. San Francisco had been very proud of this pavement when it
+was new. She was very grateful for it even now, for in the upper part
+of town the mud and dust were still something awful. Unfortunately the
+planks were beginning to wear out in places; and a city government,
+trying to give the least possible for its taxes, had made no repairs.
+
+There were many holes, large or small: jagged, splintered, ugly holes
+going down to indeterminate blackness either of depth or mud. Private
+philanthropists had fenced or covered these. Private facetiousness had
+labelled most of them with signboards. These were rough pictures of
+disaster painted from the marking pot, and various screeds--"Head of
+Navigation," "No Bottom," "Horse and Dray Lost Here," "Take Soundings,"
+"Storage, Inquire Below," "Good Fishing for Teal," and the like.
+
+Among these obstructions Sherwood guided his team skilfully, dodging
+not only them, but other vehicles darting or crawling in the same
+direction. There were no rules of the road. Omnibuses careered along,
+every window rattling loudly; drays creaked and strained, their horses'
+hoofs slipping against wet planks; horsemen threaded their way;
+nondescript delivery wagons tried to outrattle the omnibuses. The din
+was something extraordinary--hoofs drumming, wheels rumbling, oaths and
+shouts, and from the sidewalks the blare and bray of brass bands in
+front of the various auction shops. Newsboys and bootblacks darted in
+all directions, shouting raucously as they do to-day. Cigar boys, an
+institution of the time, added to the hubbub. Everybody was going in
+the same direction, some sauntering with an air of leisure, some
+hurrying as though their fortunes were at stake.
+
+A wild shriek arose, and everybody made room for the steam sand shovel
+on its way to dump the sand hills into the bay. It was called the
+"steam paddy" to distinguish it from the "hand paddy"--out of Cork or
+Dublin. It rumbled by on its track, very much like juggernaut in its
+calm indifference as to how many it ran over. Sherwood's horses looked
+at it nervously askance; but he spoke to them, and though they trembled
+they stood.
+
+Now they debouched on the Central Wharf, and the sound of the hoofs and
+the wheels changed its tone. Central Wharf extended a full mile into
+the bay. It was lined on either side its narrow roadway by small
+shacks, in which were offered fowls, fish, vegetables, candy,
+refreshments. Some of them were tiny saloons or gambling houses. But by
+far the majority were the cubicles where the Jewish slop sellers
+displayed their wares. Men returning from the mines here landed, and
+here replenished their wardrobes. Everything was exposed to view
+outside, like clothes hung out after a rain.
+
+The narrow way between this long row of shops was crowded almost
+dangerously. Magnificent dray horses, with long hair on the fetlocks
+above their big heavy hoofs, bridling in conscious pride of
+silver-mounted harness and curled or braided manes, rose above the ruck
+as their ancestors, the warhorses, must have risen in medieval battle.
+The crowd parted before them and closed in behind them. Here and there,
+too, a horseman could be seen--with a little cleared space at his
+heels. Or a private calash picking its way circumspectly.
+
+From her point of vantage on the elevated seat Mrs. Sherwood could see
+over the heads of people. She sat very quietly, her body upright, but
+in the poised repose characteristic of her. Many admiring glances were
+directed at her. She seemed to be unconscious of them. Nevertheless,
+nothing escaped her. She saw, and appreciated and enjoyed, every phase
+of that heterogeneous crowd--miners in their exaggeratedly rough
+clothes, brocaded or cotton clad Chinese, gorgeous Spaniards or
+Chilenos, drunken men, sober men, excited men, empty cans or cases
+kicking around underfoot, frantic runners for hotels or steamboats
+trying to push their way by, newsboys and cigar boys darting about and
+miraculously worming their way through impenetrable places. Atop a
+portable pair of steps a pale, well-dressed young man was playing
+thimble-rig on his knees with a gilt pea. From an upturned keg a
+preacher was exhorting. And occasionally, through gaps between the
+shacks, she caught glimpses of blue water; or of ships at anchor; or,
+more often, of the tall pile drivers whose hammers went steadily up and
+down.
+
+Sherwood guided his glossy team and light spidery vehicle with the
+greatest delicacy and skill. He was wholly absorbed in his task.
+Suddenly up ahead a wild turmoil broke out. People crowded to right and
+left, clambering, shouting, screaming. A runaway horse hitched to a
+light buggy came careering down the way.
+
+A collision seemed inevitable. Sherwood turned his horses' heads
+directly at an open shop front. They hesitated, their small pointed
+ears working nervously. Sherwood spoke to them. They moved forward,
+quivering, picking their way daintily. Sherwood spoke again. They
+stopped. The runaway hurtled by, missing the tail of the buggy by two
+feet. A moment later a grand crash marked the end of its career farther
+down the line. Again Sherwood spoke to his horses, and exerted the
+slightest pressure on the reins. Daintily, slowly, their ears twitching
+back and forth, their fine eyes rolling, they backed out of the opening.
+
+Throughout all this exciting little incident the woman had not altered
+her pose nor the expression of her face. Her head high, her eye
+ruminative, she had looked on it all as one quite detached from
+possible consequences. The little parasol did not change its angle.
+Only, quite deliberately, she had relinquished the ribbon by which she
+held on her hat, and had placed her slender hand steadyingly on the
+side of the vehicle.
+
+The bystanders, already leaping down from their places of refuge and
+again crowding the narrow way, directed admiring eyes toward the
+beautiful, nervous, docile horses, the calm and dominating man, and the
+poised, dainty creature at his side. One drunken individual cheered her
+personally. At this a faint shell pink appeared in her cheeks, though
+she gave no other sign that she had heard. Sherwood glanced down at
+her, amused.
+
+But now emerged the Jew slop seller, very voluble. He had darted like a
+rat to some mysterious inner recess of his burrow; but now he was out
+again filling the air with lamentations, claims, appeals for justice.
+Sherwood did not even glance toward him; but in the very act of tooling
+his horses into the roadway tossed the man some silver. Immediately,
+with shouts and cheers and laughter, the hoodlums nearby began a
+scramble.
+
+The end of the long wharf widened to a great square, free of all
+buildings but a sort of warehouse near one end. Here a rope divided off
+a landing space. Close to the rope the multitude crowded, ready for its
+entertainment. Here also stood in stately grandeur the three livery
+hacks of which San Francisco boasted. They were magnificent affairs,
+the like of which has never elsewhere been seen plying for public hire,
+brightly painted, highly varnished, lined with silks, trimmed with
+solid silver. The harnesses were heavily mounted with the same metal.
+On their boxes sat fashionable creatures, dressed, not in livery, but
+throughout in the very latest of the late styles, shod with varnished
+leather, gloved with softest kid. Sherwood drove skilfully to the very
+edge of the roped space, pushing aside the crowd on foot. They growled
+at him savagely. He paid no attention to them, and they gave way. The
+buggy came to a stop. The horses, tossing their heads, rolling their
+eyes, stamping their little hoofs, nevertheless stood without need of
+further attention.
+
+Now the brass bands blared with a sudden overwhelming blast of sound,
+the crowd cheered noisily; the runners for the hotels began to bark
+like a pack of dogs. With a vast turmoil of paddle wheels, swirling of
+white and green waters, bellowing of speaking trumpets, throwing of
+handlines and scurrying of deck hands and dock hands, the _Panama_ came
+to rest. After considerable delay the gangplank was placed. The
+passengers began to disembark, facing the din much as they would have
+faced the buffeting of a strong wind. This was the cream of the
+entertainment for which the crowd had gathered; for which, indeed, the
+Sherwoods had made their excursion. Each individual received his meed
+of comment, sometimes audible and by no means always flattering.
+Certainly in variety both of character and of circumstance they offered
+plenty of material. From wild, half-civilized denizens of Louisiana's
+canebrakes, clinging closely to their little bundles and their long
+rifles, to the most polished exquisites of fashion they offered all
+grades and intermediates. Some of them looked rather bewildered. Some
+seemed to know just what to do and where to go. Most dove into the
+crowd with the apparent idea of losing their identity as soon as
+possible. The three magnificent hacks were filled, and managed, with
+much plunging and excitement, to plow a way through the crowd and so
+depart. Amusing things happened to which the Sherwoods called each
+other's attention. Thus a man, burdened with a single valise, ducked
+under the ropes near them. A paper boy happened to be standing near.
+The passenger offered the boy a fifty-cent piece.
+
+"Here, boy," said he, "just carry this valise for me."
+
+The paper boy gravely contemplated the fifty cents, dove into his
+pocket, and produced another.
+
+"Here, man," said he, handing them both to the traveller, "take this
+and carry it yourself."
+
+One by one the omnibuses filled and departed. The stream of passengers
+down the gangplank had ceased. The crowd began to thin. Sherwood
+gathered his reins to go. Mrs. Sherwood suddenly laid her hand on his
+forearm.
+
+"Oh, the poor thing!" she cried, her voice thrilling with compassion.
+
+A young man and a steward were supporting a girl down the gangplank.
+Evidently she was very weak and ill. Her face was chalky white, with
+dark rings under the eyes, her lips were pale, and she leaned heavily
+on the men. Although she could not have heard Mrs. Sherwood's
+exclamation of pity, she happened to look up at that instant, revealing
+a pair of large, dark, and appealing eyes. Her figure, too, dressed in
+a plain travelling dress, strikingly simple but bearing the
+unmistakable mark of distinction, was appealing; as were her exquisite,
+smooth baby skin and the downward drooping, almost childlike, curves of
+her lips. The inequalities of the ribbed gangplank were sufficient to
+cause her to stumble.
+
+"She is very weak," commented Mrs. Sherwood.
+
+"She is--or would be--remarkably pretty," added Sherwood. "I wonder
+what ails her."
+
+Arrived at the foot of the gangplank the young man removed his hat with
+an air of perplexity, and looked about him. He was of the rather
+florid, always boyish type; and the removal of his hat had revealed a
+mat of close-curling brown hair, like a cap over his well-shaped head.
+The normal expression of his face was probably quizzically humorous,
+for already the little lines of habitual half laughter were sketched
+about his eyes.
+
+"A plunger," said John Sherwood to himself, out of his knowledge of
+men; then as the young man glanced directly toward him, disclosing the
+colour and expression of his eyes, "a plunger in something," he
+amended, revising his first impression.
+
+But now the humorous element was quite in abeyance, and a faint dismay
+had taken its place. One arm supporting the drooping girl, he was
+looking up and down the wharf. Not a vehicle remained save the heavy
+drays already backing up to receive their loads of freight. The dock
+hands had dropped and were coiling the line that had separated the
+crowd from the landing stage.
+
+With another exclamation the woman in the carriage rose, and before
+Sherwood could make a move to assist her, had poised on the rim of the
+wheel and leaped lightly to the dock. Like a thistledown she floated to
+the little group at the foot of the gangplank. The steward instantly
+gave way to her evident intention. She passed her arm around the girl's
+waist. The three moved slowly toward the buggy, Mrs. Sherwood, her head
+bent charmingly forward, murmuring compassionate, broken, little
+phrases, supporting the newcomer's reviving footsteps.
+
+Sherwood, a faint, fond amusement lurking in the depths of his eyes,
+quietly cramped the wheels of the buggy.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+A half hour later the two men, having deposited the women safely in the
+Sherwoods' rooms at the Bella Union, and having been unceremoniously
+dismissed by Mrs. Sherwood, strolled together to the veranda. They had
+not, until now, had a chance to exchange six words.
+
+The newcomer, who announced himself as Milton Keith from Baltimore,
+proved to have a likable and engaging personality. He was bubbling with
+interest and enthusiasm; and these qualities, provided they are backed
+solidly, are always prepossessing. Sherwood, quietly studying him,
+concluded that such was the case. His jaw and mouth were set in firm
+lines; his eye, while dancing and mischievous, had depths of capability
+and reserves of forcefulness. But Sherwood was, by inclination and by
+the necessities of his profession, a close observer of men. Another,
+less practised, might have seen here merely an eager, rather talkative,
+apparently volatile, very friendly, quite unreserved young man of
+twenty-five. Any one, analytical or otherwise, could not have avoided
+feeling the attractive force of the youth's personality, the friendly
+quality that is nine tenths individual magnetism and one tenth the cast
+of mind that initially takes for granted the other man's friendliness.
+
+At the moment Keith was boyishly avid for the sights of the new city.
+In these modern days of long journeys, a place so remote as San
+Francisco, in the most commonplace of circumstances, gathers to its
+reputation something of the fabulous. How much more true then of a city
+built from sand dunes in four years; five times swept by fire, yet
+rising again and better before its ashes were extinct; the resort of
+all the picturesque, unknown races of the earth--the Chinese, the
+Chileno, the Mexican, the Spanish, the Islander, the Moor, the
+Turk--not to speak of ordinary foreigners from Russia, England, France,
+Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the out-of-the-way corners of Europe; the
+haunt of the wild and striking individuals of all these races. "Sydney
+ducks" from the criminal colonies; "shoulder strikers" direct from the
+tough wards of New York; long, lean, fever-haunted crackers from the
+Georgia mountains or the Louisiana canebrakes; Pike County desperadoes;
+long-haired men from the trapping countries; hard-fisted, sardonic
+state of Maine men fresh from their rivers; and Indian fighters from
+the Western Reserve; grasping, shrewd commercial Yankees; fire-eating
+Southern politicians; lawyers, doctors, merchants, chiefs, and thiefs,
+the well-educated and the ignorant, the high-minded and the scalawags,
+all dumped down together on a sand hill to work out their destinies; a
+city whose precedents, whose morals, whose laws, were made or adapted
+on the spot; where might in some form or another--revolver, money,
+influence--made its only right; whose history ranged in three years the
+gamut of human passion, strife, and development; whose background was
+the fabled El Dorado whence the gold in unending floods poured through
+its sluices. To the outside world tales of these things had come. They
+did not lose in the journey. The vast loom of actual occurrences rose
+above the horizon like mirages. Names and events borrowed a
+half-legendary quality from distances, as elsewhere from time. Keith
+had heard of Coleman, of Terry, of Broderick, Brannan, Gwin, Geary, as
+he had heard of the worthies of ancient history; he had visualized the
+fabled splendours of San Francisco's great gambling houses, of the
+excitements of her fervid, fevered life, as he might have visualized
+the magnificences of pagan Rome; he had listened to tales of her street
+brawls, her vast projects, the buccaneering raids of her big men, her
+Vigilance Committee of the year before, as he would have listened to
+the stories of one of Napoleon's veterans. Now, by the simple process
+of a voyage that had seemed literally interminable but now was past, he
+had landed in the very midst of fable. It was like dying, he told
+Sherwood eagerly, like going irretrievably to a new planet. All his old
+world now seemed as remote, as insubstantial, as phantomlike, as this
+had seemed.
+
+"Even yet I can't believe it's all so," he cried, walking excitedly
+back and forth, and waving an extinct cigar. "I've got to see it, touch
+it! Why, I know it all in advance. That must be where the Jenny Lind
+Theatre stood--before the fire--just opposite? I thought so! And the
+bay used to come up to Montgomery Street, only a block down! You see, I
+know it all! And when we came in, and I saw all those idle ships lying
+at anchor, just as they have lain since their crews deserted them in
+'49 to go to the mines--and I know why they haven't been used since,
+why they will continue to lie there at anchor until they rot or sink--"
+
+"Do you?" said Sherwood, who was vastly amused and greatly taken by
+this fresh enthusiasm.
+
+"Yes, the clipper ships!" Keith swept on. "The first cargoes in this
+new market make the money--the fastest clippers--poor old hulks--but
+you brought in the argonauts!"
+
+So he ran on, venting his impatience, so plainly divided between his
+sense of duty in staying near his wife and his great desire to slip the
+leash, that Sherwood smiled to himself. Once again he mentioned Coleman
+and the Vigilantes of '51.
+
+"I suppose he's around here? I may see him?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Sherwood, "you'll see him. But if you would accept a
+bit of advice, go slow. You must remember that such a movement makes
+enemies, arouses opposition. A great many excellent people--whom you
+will know--are a little doubtful about all that."
+
+Keith mentioned other names.
+
+"I know them all. They are among the most influential members of the
+bar." He glanced at a large watch. "Just at this hour we might find
+them at the Monumental engine house. What do you say?"
+
+"I should like nothing better!" cried Keith.
+
+"Your wife's illness is not likely to require immediate attendance?"
+suggested Sherwood inquiringly.
+
+"She's only seasick--horrible voyage--she's always under the weather on
+shipboard--three weeks of it from Panama--Nan's as strong as a horse,"
+replied Keith, with obvious impatience.
+
+They walked across the Plaza to the Monumental fire engine house, a
+square brick structure of two stories, with wide folding doors, and a
+bell cupola apart. Keith paused to admire the engine. It was of the
+type usual in those days, consisting of a waterbox with inlet and
+outlet connections, a pump atop, and parallel pump rails on either
+side, by the hand manipulation of which the water was thrown with force
+from the box. The vehicle was drawn by means of a long rope, carried on
+a drum. This could be slacked off at need to accommodate as high as a
+hundred men or as few as would suffice to move her. So far this engine
+differed in no manner from those Keith had seen in the East. But this
+machine belonged to a volunteer company, one of many and all rivals. It
+was gayly coloured. On the sides of its waterbox were scenic paintings
+of some little merit. The woodwork was all mahogany. Its brass
+ornamentation was heavy and brought to a high state of polish. From a
+light rack along its centre dangled two beautifully chased speaking
+trumpets, and a row of heavy red-leather helmets. Axes nestled in
+sockets. A screaming gilt eagle, with wings outspread, hovered atop.
+Alongside the engine stood the hook and ladder truck and the hose cart.
+These smaller and less important vehicles were painted in the same
+scheme of colour, were equally glittering and polished. Keith commented
+on all this admiringly.
+
+"Yes," said Sherwood, "you see, since the big fires, it has become a
+good deal a matter of pride. There are eleven volunteer companies, and
+they are great rivals in everything, political and social, as well as
+in the line of regular business, so to speak. Mighty efficient. You'll
+have to join a company, of course; and you better look around a little
+before deciding. Each represents something different--some different
+element. They are really as much clubs as fire companies."
+
+They mounted to the upper story, where Keith found himself in a long
+room, comfortably fitted with chairs, tables, books, and papers. A
+double door showed a billiard table in action. Sherwood indicated a
+closed door across the hall.
+
+"Card rooms," said he briefly.
+
+The air was blue with smoke and noisy with rather vociferative
+conversation and laughter. Several groups of men were gathered in
+little knots. A negro in white duck moved here and there carrying a
+tray.
+
+Sherwood promptly introduced Keith to many of these men, and he was as
+promptly asked to name his drink. Keith caught few of the names, but he
+liked the hearty, instant cordiality. Remarking on the beauty and order
+of the machines, loud cries arose for "Taylor! Bert Taylor!" After a
+moment's delay a short, stocky, very red-faced man, with rather a fussy
+manner, came forward.
+
+"Mr. Keith," said a tall, dark youth, with a pronounced Southern
+accent, "I want foh to make you acquainted with Mr. Tayloh. Mr. Tayloh
+is at once the patron saint of the Monumentals, but to a large extent
+its 'angel' as well--I hope you understand the theatrical significance
+of that term, suh. He is motheh, fatheh, guardeen, and dry nurse to
+every stick, stone, and brick, every piece of wood, brass, or rubbah,
+every inch of hose, and every man _and_ Irishman on these premises."
+Taylor had turned an embarrassed brick red. "Mr. Keith," went on the
+dark youth, explanatorily, "was just sayin' that though he had
+inspected carefully many fire equipments, per'fessional and amateur, he
+had nevah feasted his eyes on so complete an outfit as that of our
+Monumentals."
+
+Keith had not said all this, but possibly he had meant it. The
+brick-red, stocky little man was so plainly embarrassed and anxious to
+depart that Keith racked his brains for something to say. All he could
+remember was the manufacturer's nameplate on the machine downstairs.
+
+"I see you have selected the Hunaman engine, sir," said he. The little
+man's eye brightened.
+
+"It may be, sir, that you favour the piano-box type--of the sort made
+by Smith or Van Ness?" he inquired politely.
+
+"It is a point on which my opinion is still-suspended," replied Keith
+with great gravity.
+
+The little man moved nearer, and his shyness fell from him.
+
+"Oh, but really there is no choice, none whatever!" he cried. "I'm
+sure, sir, I can convince you in five minutes. I assure you we have
+gone into the subject thoroughly--this Hunaman cost us over five
+thousand dollars; and you may be certain we went very thoroughly into
+the matter before making the investment----"
+
+He went on talking in his self-effacing, deprecatory, but very earnest
+fashion. The other men in the group, Keith felt, were watching with
+covert amusement. Occasionally, he thought to catch half-concealed
+grins at his predicament. In less than the five minutes the claims of
+the piano box were utterly demolished. Followed a dissertation on
+methods of fighting fire; and then a history of the Monumental
+Company--its members, its officers, and its proud record. "And our
+bell--did you know that?--is the bell used by the Vigilantes--" He
+broke off suddenly in confusion, his embarrassment descending on him
+again. A moment later he sidled away.
+
+"But I found him very interesting!" protested Keith, in answer to
+implied apologies.
+
+"Bert is invaluable here; but he's a lunatic on fire apparatus. We
+couldn't get along without him, but it's sometimes mighty difficult to
+get on _with_ him," said some one.
+
+Keith was making a good impression without consciously trying to do so.
+His high spirits of youth and enthusiasm were in his favour; and as yet
+he had no interests to come into conflict with those of any one
+present. More drinks were ordered and fresh cigars lighted. From
+Sherwood they now learned that Keith had but just landed, and intended
+to settle as a permanent resident. As one man they uprose.
+
+"And yo' wastin' of yo' time indoors!" mourned the dark Southerner.
+"And so much to see!"
+
+Enthusiastically they surrounded him and led him forth. Only a very
+old, very small, very decadent village is devoid of what is modernly
+called the "booster" spirit. In those early days of slow transportation
+and isolated communities, local patriotism was much stronger than it is
+now. And something about the air's wine of the Pacific slope has
+always, and probably will always, make of every man an earnest
+proselyte for whatever patch of soil he calls home. But add to these
+general considerations the indubitable facts of harbour, hill, health,
+opportunity, activity, and a genuine history, if of only three years,
+one can no longer marvel that every man, each in his own way, saw
+visions.
+
+In the course of the next few hours Keith got confused and mixed
+impressions of many things. The fortresslike warehouses; the plank
+roads; the new Jenny Lind Theatre; the steam paddies eating steadily
+into the sand hills at the edge of town; the Dramatic Museum; houses
+perched on the crumbling edges of hills; houses sunk far below the
+level of new streets, with tin cans and ducks floating around them; new
+office buildings; places where new office buildings were going to be or
+merely ought to be; land that in five years was going to be worth
+fabulous sums; unlikely looking spots where historic things had stood
+or had happened--all these were pointed out to him. He was called upon
+to exercise the eye of faith; to reconstruct; to eliminate the
+unfinished, the mean, the sordid; to overlook the inadequate; to build
+the city as it was sure to be; and to concern himself with that and
+that only. He admired Mount Tamalpais over the way. He was taken up a
+high hill--a laborious journey--to gaze on the spot where he would have
+been able to see Mount Diabolo, if only Mount Diabolo had been visible.
+And every few blocks he was halted and made to shake hands with some
+one who was always immediately characterized to him impressively, under
+the breath--"Colonel Baker, sir, one of the most divinely endowed men
+with the gift of eloquence, sir"; "Mr. Rowlee, sir, editor of one of
+our leading journals"; "Judge Caldwell, sir at present one of the
+ornaments of our bench"; "Mr. Ben Sansome, sir, a leadin' young man in
+our young but vigorous social life"; and so on.
+
+These introductions safely and ceremoniously accomplished, each
+newcomer insisted on leading the way to the nearest bar.
+
+"I insist, sir. It is just the hour for my afternoon toddy."
+
+After some murmuring of expostulation, the invitation was invariably
+accepted.
+
+There was always a barroom immediately adjacent. Keith was struck by
+the number and splendour of these places. Although San Francisco was
+only three years removed from the tent stage, and although the
+freightage from the centres of civilization was appalling, there was no
+lack of luxury. Mahogany bars with brass rails, huge mirrors with gilt
+frames, pyramids of delicate crystal, rich hangings, oil paintings of
+doubtful merit but indisputable interest, heavy chandeliers of prism
+glasses, most elaborate free lunches, and white-clad barkeepers--such
+matters were common to all. In addition, certain of the more
+pretentious boasted special attractions. Thus, one place supported its
+ceiling on crystal pillars; another--and this was crowded--had dashing
+young women to serve the drinks, though the mixing was done by men; a
+third offered one of the new large musical boxes capable of playing
+several very noisy tunes; a fourth had imported a marvellous piece of
+mechanism: a piece of machinery run by clockwork, exhibiting the sea in
+motion, a ship tossing on its bosom; on shore, a water mill in action,
+a train of cars passing over a bridge, a deer chase with hounds,
+huntsmen, and game, all in pursuit or flight, and the like. The
+barkeepers were marvels of dexterity and of especial knowledge. At
+command they would deftly and skilfully mix a great variety of
+drinks--cocktails, sangarees, juleps, bounces, swizzles, and many
+others. In mixing these drinks it was their especial pride to pass them
+at arm's length from one tall glass to another, the fluid describing a
+long curve through the air, but spilling never a drop.
+
+In these places Keith pledged in turn each of his new acquaintances,
+and was pledged by them. Never, he thought, had he met so jolly, so
+interesting, so experienced a lot of men. They had not only lived
+history, they had made it. They were so full of high spirits and the
+spirit of play. His heart warmed to them mightily; and over and over he
+told himself that he had made no mistake in his long voyage to new
+fields of endeavour. On the other hand, he, too, made a good
+impression. Naturally the numerous drinks had something to do with this
+mutual esteem; but also it was a fact that his boyish, laughing,
+half-reckless spirit had much in common with the spirit of the times.
+Quite accidentally he discovered that the tall, dark Southern youth was
+Calhoun Bennett. This then seemed to him a remarkable coincidence.
+
+"Why, I have a letter of introduction to you!" he said.
+
+Again and again he recurred to this point, insisting on telling
+everybody how extraordinary the situation was.
+
+"Here I've been talking to him for three hours," he exclaimed, "and
+never knew who he was, and all the time I had a letter of introduction
+to him!"
+
+This and a warm irresponsible glow of comradeship were the sole
+indications of the drinks he had had. Keith possessed a strong head.
+Some of the others were not so fortunate. Little Rowlee was frankly
+verging on drunkenness.
+
+The afternoon wind was beginning to die, and the wisps of high fog that
+had, since two o'clock, been flying before it, now paused and
+forgathered to veil the sky. Dusk was falling.
+
+"Look here," suggested Rowlee suddenly; "let's go to Allen's Branch and
+have a good dinner, and then drift around to Belle's place and see if
+there's any excitement to be had thereabouts."
+
+"Belle--our local Aspasia, sah," breathed a very elaborate, pompous,
+elderly Southerner, who had been introduced as Major Marmaduke Miles.
+
+But this suggestion brought to Keith a sudden realization of the
+lateness of the hour, the duration of his absence, and the fact that,
+not only had he not yet settled his wife in rooms of her own, but had
+left her on the hands of strangers. For the first time he noticed that
+Sherwood was not of the party.
+
+"When did Sherwood leave?" he cried.
+
+"Oh, a right sma't time ago," said Bennett.
+
+Keith started to his feet.
+
+"I should like to join you," said he, "but it is impossible now."
+
+A chorus of expostulation went up at this.
+
+"But I haven't settled down yet!" persisted Keith. "I don't know even
+whether my baggage is at the hotel."
+
+They waived aside his objections; but finding him obdurate, perhaps a
+little panicky over the situation, they gave over urging the point.
+
+"But you must join us later in the evening," said they.
+
+The idea grew.
+
+"I tell you what," said Rowlee, with half-drunken gravity; "he's got to
+come back. We can't afford to lose him this early. And he can't afford
+to lose us. The best life of this glorious commonwealth is as yet a
+sealed book to him. It is our sacred duty, gentlemen, to break those
+seals. What does he know of our temples of Terpsichore? Our altars to
+the gods of chance? Our bowers of the Cyprians?"
+
+He would have gone on at length, but Keith, laughingly protesting,
+trying to disengage himself from the detaining hands, broke in with a
+promise to return. But little Rowlee was not satisfied.
+
+"I think we should take no chances," he stated. "How would it be to
+appoint a committee to 'company him and see that he gets back?"
+
+Keith's head was clear enough to realize with dismay that this
+brilliant idea was about to take. But Ben Sansome, seizing the
+situation, locked his arm firmly in Keith's.
+
+"I'll see personally that he gets back," said he.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+"That was mighty good of you; you saved my life!" said Keith to him,
+gratefully, as they walked up the street.
+
+"You couldn't have that tribe of wild Indians descending on your wife,"
+said Sansome. He had kept pace with, the others, but showed it not at
+all. Sansome was a slender, languid, bored, quiet sort of person,
+exceedingly well dressed in the height of fashion, speaking with a
+slight, well-bred drawl, given to looking rather superciliously from
+beneath his fine eyelashes, almost too good looking. He liked, or
+pretended he liked, to view life from the discriminating spectator's
+standpoint; and remained unstirred by stirring events. He prided
+himself on the delicacy of his social tact. In the natural course of
+evolution he would probably never marry, and would become in time an
+"old beau," haunting ballrooms with reminiscences of old-time belles.
+
+Keith, meeting the open air, began to feel his exhilaration.
+
+"What I need is my head under a pump for about ten seconds," he told
+Sansome frankly. "Lord! It was just about time I got away."
+
+Arrived at the hotel, Sansome said good-bye, but Keith would have none
+of it.
+
+"No, no!" he cried. "You must come in, now you've come so far! I want
+you to meet my wife; she'll be delighted!"
+
+And Sansome, whose celebrated social tact had been slightly obscured by
+his potations, finally consented. Truth to tell, it would have been a
+little difficult for him to have got away. Poising his light stick and
+gloves in his left hand, giving his drooping moustache a last twirl,
+and settling his heavy cravat in place, he followed Keith down the
+little hall to the Sherwoods' apartments.
+
+At the knock Keith was at once invited to enter. The men threw open the
+door. Sansome stared with all his might.
+
+Nan Keith had made the usual miraculous recovery from seasickness once
+she felt the solid ground beneath, her. The beautiful baby-textured
+skin had come alive with soft colour, her dark, wide, liquid eyes had
+brightened. She had assumed a soft, silken, wrapperlike garment with, a
+wide sash, borrowed from Mrs. Sherwood; and at the moment was seated in
+an enveloping armchair beneath a wide-shaded lamp. The firm, soft lines
+of her figure, uncorseted in this negligee, were suggested beneath the
+silk. Sansome stopped short, staring, his eyes kindling with, interest.
+Here was something not only new but different--a distinct addition.
+Sansome, like most dilettantes, was something of a phrase maker, and
+prided himself on the apt word. He found it here, to his own
+satisfaction, at least.
+
+"Her beauty is positively creamy!" he murmured to himself.
+
+At sight of her Keith crossed directly to her, full of a sudden,
+engaging, tender solicitude.
+
+"How are you feeling now, honey?" he inquired. "Quite recovered? All
+right now?"
+
+But Nan was inclined to be a little vexed and reproachful. She had been
+left alone, with strangers, altogether too long. Keith excused himself
+volubly and convincingly--she had been asleep--she was much better off
+not being disturbed--that this was true was proven by results--she was
+blooming, positively blooming--as fresh as a rose leaf--of course it
+was rather an imposition on the Sherwoods, but the baggage hadn't come
+up yet, and they were kind people, our sort, the sort for whom the word
+obligation did not exist--he, personally, had not intended being gone
+so long, but by the rarest of chances he had run across some of the men
+to whom, he had introductions, and they had been most kind in making
+him acquainted--nothing was more important to a young lawyer than to
+"establish connections"--it did not do to overlook a chance.
+
+He urged all this, and more, with all his usual, vital, enthusiastic
+force. In spite of herself, she was overborne to a reproachful
+forgiveness.
+
+In the meantime Mrs. Sherwood had gone over to where Ben Sansome was
+still standing by the door. Sansome did not like Mrs. Sherwood. He
+considered that she had no social tact at all. This was mainly--though
+he did not analyze it--because she was quite apt to speak the direct
+and literal truth to him; because she had a disquieting self-confidence
+and competence in place of appropriate, graceful, feminine dependence;
+but especially because she had never and would never play up to his
+game.
+
+"Are you making a formal afternoon call, Ben?" she asked in her cool,
+mocking voice. "Aren't you really a little _de trop?_"
+
+"I did not come of my own volition at this time, I assure you," he
+replied a trifle stiffly. The thought that he was suspected of a
+blunder in social custom stung him; as, in a rather lazily amused way,
+she knew it would.
+
+At this reply she glanced keenly toward Keith, then nodded; slowly.
+
+"I see," she conceded.
+
+Sansome moved to go. But at this Keith's attention was attracted. He
+sprang forward, seized Sansome's arm, insisted on introducing him to
+Nan, was over-effusive, over-cordial, buoyant. Both Sansome and Mrs.
+Sherwood were experienced enough to yield entirely to his mood. They
+understood perfectly that at the least opposition Keith was in just the
+condition to reveal himself, perhaps, to break over the frail barrier
+that separates exhilaration from loss of self-control. They saw also
+that Nan had no suspicion of the state of affairs. Indeed, following
+the reaction from her long voyage and her illness, she responded and
+played up to Keith's high spirits. Neither wanted her to grasp the
+situation if it could be avoided: Mrs. Sherwood from genuine good
+feeling, Sansome because of the social awkwardness and bad taste.
+Besides, he felt that his presence at such a scene would be a very bad
+beginning for himself.
+
+"No, you're not going," Keith was insisting; "you don't realize what a
+celebration this is! Here we've pulled up all our roots, haven't we,
+Nan? and come thousands of miles to a new country, a wonderful country;
+and the very first day of our landing you want us to act as though
+nothing had happened!"
+
+Nan nodded a vigorous assent to his implied reference to her.
+
+"And what we're going to do is to celebrate," insisted Keith. "You're
+all going to dine with us. No, I insist! You're the only friends we
+have out here, and you aren't going to desert us the very first day we
+need you."
+
+"I wish you would!" cried Nan, sitting forward eagerly.
+
+They tried to expostulate, to get out of it, but without avail. It
+seemed easier to promise. Keith rushed out to look for his baggage, to
+arrange for rooms, leaving the three together to await his return.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+Both Mrs. Sherwood and Sansome applied themselves to relieving whatever
+embarrassment Nan might feel over this unusual situation. Sansome was
+possessed of great charm and social experience. He could play the game
+of light conversation to perfection. By way of bridging the pause in
+events, he set himself to describing the society in which the Keiths
+would shortly find themselves launched. His remarks were practically a
+monologue, interspersed by irrepressible gurgles of laughter from Nan.
+Mrs. Sherwood sat quietly by. She did not laugh, but it was evident she
+was amused. In this congenial atmosphere Sansome outdid himself.
+
+"They are all afraid of each other," he told her, "because they don't
+know anything about each other. Each ex-washerwoman thinks the other
+ex-washerwoman must have been at least a duchess at home. It's terribly
+funny. If they can get hold of six porcelain statuettes, a half-dozen
+antimacassars, some gilt chairs, and a glass bell of wax flowers, they
+imagine they're elegantly furnished. And their functions! I give you my
+word, I'd as soon attend a reasonably pleasant funeral! Some of them
+try to entertain by playing intellectual games--you know, rhyming or
+spelling games--seriously!" He went on to describe some of the women,
+mentioning no names, however. "You'll recognize them when you meet
+them," he assured her. "There's one we'll call the Social Agitator--she
+isn't happy unless she is running things. I believe she spent two weeks
+once in London--or else she buys her boots there--anyway, when
+discussions get lively she squelches them by saying, 'Of course, my
+dear, that may be absolutely _au fait_ in New York--but in London--' It
+corks them up every time. And 'pon honour, three quarters of the time
+she's quite wrong! Then there's the Lady Thug, Square jaw, square
+shoulder, sort of bulging out at the top--you know--in decollete one
+cannot help thinking 'one more struggle and she'll be free!'"
+
+"Oh, fie, Mr. Sansome," laughed Nan, half shocked.
+
+Sansome rattled on. The ultimate effect was to convey an impression of
+San Francisco society--such as existed at all--as stodgy, stupid,
+pretentious, unattractive. Nan was immensely amused, but inclined to
+take it all with a grain of salt.
+
+"Mrs. Sherwood doesn't bear you out," she told him, "and she's the only
+one I've seen yet. I think we're going to have a pretty good time."
+
+But at this point Keith returned. He was quite sobered from his
+temporary exhilaration, but still most cordial and enthusiastic over
+his little party, Sansome noted with quiet amusement that his light
+curly hair was damp. Evidently he had taken his own prescription as to
+the pump.
+
+"Well," he announced, "I have a room--such as it is. Can't say much for
+it. The baggage is all here; nothing missing for a wonder. I've spoken
+to the manager about dinner for five." He turned to Nan with
+brightening interest. "Guess what I saw on the bill of fare! Grizzly
+bear steak! Think of that! I ordered some."
+
+Sansome groaned comically.
+
+"What's the matter?" inquired Keith.
+
+"Did you ever try it before? Tough, stringy, unfit for human
+consumption."
+
+But Keith was fascinated by the name of the thing.
+
+"There's plenty else," he urged defensively, "and I always try
+everything once."
+
+It was agreed that they should all meet again after an hour. Sansome
+renewed his promises to be on hand.
+
+The room Keith had engaged was on the second story, and quite a
+different sort of affair from that of the Sherwoods'. Indeed it was
+little more than a pine box, containing only the bare necessities. One
+window looked out on an unkempt backyard, now mercifully hidden by
+darkness.
+
+"This is pretty tough," said Keith, "but it is the very best I could
+do. And the price is horrible. We'll have to hunt up a living place
+about the first thing we do."
+
+"Oh, it's all right," said Nan indifferently. The lassitude of
+seasickness had left her, and the excitement of new surroundings was
+beginning. She felt gently stirred by the give and take of the light
+conversation in the Sherwoods' room; and, although she did not quite
+realize it, she was responding to the stimulation of having made a good
+impression. Her subconscious self was perfectly aware that in the
+silken negligee, under the pink-shaded lamp, her clear soft skin, the
+pure lines of her radiant childlike beauty, the shadows of her tumbled
+hair, had been very appealing and effective. She moved about a trifle
+restlessly, looking at things without seeing them. "I'm glad to see the
+brown trunk. Open it, will you, dear? Heavens, what a mirror!" She
+surveyed herself in the flawed glass, moving from side to side,
+fascinated at the strange distortions.
+
+"I call it positive extortion, charging what they do for a room like
+this," grumbled Keith, busy at the trunk. "The Sherwoods must pay a
+mint of money for theirs. I wonder what he does!"
+
+Her attention attracted by this subject, she arrested her posing before
+the mirror.
+
+"They certainly are quick to take the stranger in," she commented
+lightly.
+
+Something in her tone arrested Keith's attention, and he stopped
+fussing at his keys. Nan had meant little by the remark. It had
+expressed the vague instinctive recoil of the woman brought up in
+rather conventional circumstances and in a conservative community from
+too sudden intimacy, nothing more. She did not herself understand this.
+
+"Don't you like the Sherwoods?" he instantly demanded, with the
+masculine insistence on dissecting every butterfly.
+
+"Why, she's charming!" said Nan, opening her eyes in surprise. "Of
+course, I like her immensely!"
+
+"I should think so," grumbled Keith. "They certainly have been mighty
+good to us."
+
+But Nan had dropped her negligee about her feet, and was convulsed at
+the figure made of her slim young body by the distorted mirror.
+
+"Come here, Milt," she gasped.
+
+She clung to him, gurgling with laughter, pointing one shaking finger
+at the monstrosity in the glass.
+
+"Look--look what you married!"
+
+They dressed gayly. His optimism and enthusiasm boiled over again. It
+was a shame, his leaving her all that afternoon, he reiterated; but she
+had no idea what giant strides he had made. He told her of the city,
+and he enumerated some of the acquaintances he had made--Calhoun
+Bennett, Bert Taylor, Major Marmaduke Miles, Michael Rowlee, Judge
+Caldwell, and others. They had been most cordial to him, most kind;
+they had taken him in without delay.
+
+"It's the spirit of the West, Nan," he cried, "hospitable,
+unsuspicious, free, eager to welcome! Oh, this is going to be the place
+for me; opportunity waits at every corner. They are not tied down by
+conventions, by the way somebody else has done things--"
+
+He went on rapidly to detail to her some of the things he had been
+told--the contemplated public improvements, the levelling of the sand
+hills, the building of a city out of nothing.
+
+"Why, Nan, do you realize that only four years ago this very Plaza had
+only six small buildings around it, that there were only three
+two-story structures in town, that the population was only about five
+hundred--there are thirty-five thousand now, that--" he rattled on,
+detailing his recently acquired statistics. Oh, potent influence of the
+Western spirit--already, eight hours after his landing on California's
+shores, Milton Keith was a "booster."
+
+With an expansion of relief that only a woman could fully appreciate,
+Nan unpacked and put on a frock that had nothing whatever to do with
+the sea voyage, and which she had not for some time seen. In ordinary
+accustomed circumstances she would never have thought of donning so
+elaborate a toilette for a hotel dining-room, but she was yielding to
+reaction. In her way she was "celebrating," just as was Keith. Her hair
+she did low after the fashion of the time, and bound it to her brow by
+a bandeau of pearls. The gown itself was pale green and filmy. It lent
+her a flowerlike semblance that was very fresh and lovely.
+
+"By Jove, Nan, you certainly have recovered from the sea!" cried Keith,
+and insisted on kissing her.
+
+"Look how you've mussed me all up!" chided Nan, but without irritation.
+
+They found the other three waiting for them, and without delay entered
+the dining-room. This, as indeed all the lower story, was in marked
+contrast of luxury with the bare pine bedrooms upstairs. Long red
+velvet curtains, held back by tasselled silken cords, draped the long
+windows; fluted columns at regular intervals upheld the ceiling; the
+floor was polished and slippery; the tables shone with white and
+silver. An obese and tremendous darkey in swallowtail waved a
+white-gloved hand at them, turned ponderously, and preceded them down
+the aisle with the pomp of a drum major. His dignity was colossal, awe
+inspiring, remote. Their progress became a procession, a triumphal
+procession, such as few of Caesar's generals had ever known. Arrived at
+the predestined table, he stood one side while menials drew out the
+chairs. Then he marched tremendously back to the main door, his chin
+high, his expression haughty, his backbone rigid. This head waiter was
+the feature of the Bella Union Hotel, just as the glass columns were
+the feature of the Empire, or the clockwork mechanism of the El Dorado.
+
+The dinner itself went well. Everybody seemed to be friendly and at
+ease, but by one of those strange and sudden social transitions it was
+rather subdued. This was for various reasons. Nan Keith, after her
+brief reaction, found herself again suffering from the lassitude and
+fatigue of a long voyage; she needed a night's rest and knew it. Keith
+himself was a trifle sleepy as an after affect to the earlier drinking.
+Sherwood was naturally reserved and coolly observing; Mrs. Sherwood was
+apparently somehow on guard; and Sansome, as always, took his tone from
+those about him. The wild spirits of the hour before had taken their
+flight. It was, however, a pleasant dinner--without constraint, as
+among old friends. After the meal they went to the public parlour, a
+splendid but rather dismal place. Sherwood almost immediately excused
+himself. After a short and somewhat awkward interval, Nan decided she
+would go to bed for her needed rest.
+
+"You won't think me rude, I know." said she.
+
+Keith, whose buoyant temper had been sadly divided between a genuine
+wish to do the proper and dutiful thing by his wife and a great desire
+to see more of this fascinating city, rose with so evident an alacrity
+under restraint that Mrs. Sherwood scarcely, concealed a smile. She
+said her adieux at the same time, and left the room, troubling herself
+only to the extent of that ancient platitude about "letters to write."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+"I think we'll find most of the proper crowd down at the Empire,"
+observed Sansome as the two picked their way across the Plaza. "That is
+one of the few old-fashioned, respectable gambling places left to us.
+The town is not what it used to be in a sporting way. It was certainly
+wide open in the good old days!"
+
+The streets at night were ill lighted, except where a blaze of
+illumination poured from the bigger saloons. The interims were dark,
+and the side streets and alleys stygian. "None too safe, either,"
+Sansome understated the case. Many people were abroad, but Keith
+noticed that there seemed to be no idlers; every one appeared to be
+going somewhere in particular. After a short stroll they entered the
+Empire, which, Sansome explained, was the most stylish and frequented
+gambling place in town, a sort of evening club for the well-to-do and
+powerful. Keith looked over a very large room or hall, at the lower end
+of which an alcove made a sort of raised stage with footlights. Here
+sat a dozen "nigger minstrels" with banjos strumming, and bawling away
+at top pressure. An elaborate rosewood bar ran down the whole length at
+one side--an impressive polished bar, perhaps sixty feet long, with a
+white-clad, immaculate barkeeper for every ten feet of it. Big mirrors
+of French plate reflected the whole room, and on the shelf in front of
+them glittered crystal glasses of all shapes and sizes, arranged in
+pyramids and cubes. The whole of the main floor was carpeted heavily.
+Down the centre were stationed two rows of gambling tables, where
+various games could be played--faro, keeno, roulette, stud poker, dice.
+Beyond these gambling tables, on the other side of the room from the
+bar, were small tables, easy chairs of ample proportions, lounges, and
+a fireplace. Everything was most ornate. The ceilings and walls were
+ivory white and much gilt. Heavy chandeliers, with the usual glass
+prisms and globes, revolved slowly or swayed from side to side. Huge
+oil paintings with shaded top and foot-lights occupied all vacant
+spaces in the walls. They were "valued" at from ten to thirty thousand
+dollars apiece, and that fact was advertised. "Leda and the Swan," "The
+Birth of Venus," "The Rape of the Sabines," "Cupid and Psyche" were
+some of the classic themes treated as having taken place in a warm
+climate. "Susannah and the Elders" and "Salome Dancing" gave the
+Biblical flavour. The "Bath of the Harem" finished the collection. No
+canvas was of less size than seven by ten feet.
+
+The floor was filled with people. A haze of blue smoke hung in the air.
+There was no loud noise except from the minstrel stage at the end. A
+low hum of talk, occasionally accented, buzzed continuously. Many of
+the people wandering about, leaning against the bar, or integers of the
+compact groups around the gambling tables, were dressed in the height
+of fashion; but, on the other hand, certainly half were in the roughest
+sort of clothes--floppy old slouch hats, worn flannel shirts, top boots
+to which dried mud was clinging. These men were as well treated as the
+others.
+
+Fascinated, Keith would, have liked to linger, but Sansome threaded his
+way toward the farther corner. As Keith passed near one of the close
+groups around a gambling table, it parted momentarily, and he looked
+into the eyes of the man in charge, cold, passionless, aloof, eyes
+neither friendly nor unfriendly. And he saw the pale skin; the weary,
+bored, immobile features; the meticulous neat dress; the long, deft
+fingers; and caught the withdrawn, deadly, exotic personality of the
+professional gambler on duty.
+
+The whole place was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Whether it
+was primarily a bar, a gambling resort, or a sort of a public club with
+trimmings, he could not have determined. Many of those present, perhaps
+a majority, were neither gambling, nor drinking; they seemed not to be
+adding to the profits of the place in any way, but either wandered
+about or sat in the easy chairs, smoking, reading papers, or attending
+to the occasional outbreaks of the minstrels. It was most interesting.
+
+They joined a group in the far corner. A white-clad negro instantly
+brought them chairs, and hovered discreetly near. Among those sitting
+about Keith recognized several he had met in the afternoon; and to
+several more he was introduced. Of these the one who most instantly
+impressed him was called Morrell. This was evidently a young
+Englishman, a being of a type raised quite abundantly in England, but
+more rarely seen in native Americans--the lean-faced, rather
+flat-cheeked, high-cheek-boned, aquiline-nosed, florid-complexioned,
+silent, clean-built sort that would seem to represent the high-bred,
+finely drawn product of a long social evolution. These traits when seen
+in the person of a native-born American generally do represent this
+fineness; but the English, having been longer at the production of
+their race, can often produce the outward semblance without necessarily
+the inner reality. Many of us even now do not quite realize that fact;
+certainly in 1852 most of us did not. Morrell was dressed in riding
+breeches, carried a short bamboo crop, smiled engagingly to exhibit
+even, strong, white teeth, and had little to say.
+
+"A beverage seems called for," remarked Judge Caldwell, a gross,
+explosive, tobacco-chewing man, with a merry, reckless eye. The order
+given, the conversation swung back to the topic that had occupied it
+before Keith and Sansome had arrived.
+
+It seemed that an individual there present, Markle by name--a tall,
+histrionic, dark man with a tossing mane--conceived himself to have
+been insulted by some one whose name Keith did not catch, and had that
+very afternoon issued warning that he would "shoot on sight." Some of
+the older men were advising him to go slow.
+
+"But, gentlemen," cried Markle heatedly, "none of you would stand such
+conduct from anybody! What are we coming to? I'll get that----as sure
+as God made little apples."
+
+"That's all right; I don't blame yo'," argued Calhoun. Bennett. "Do not
+misunderstand me, suh. I agree with yo', lock, stock, an' barrel. My
+point is that yo' must be circumspect. Challenge him, that's the way."
+
+"He isn't worth my challenge, sir, nor the challenge of any decent man.
+You know that, sir."
+
+"Well, street shootings have got to be a little, a little----"
+
+He fell silent, and Keith, looked up in surprise to see why. A man was
+slowly passing the table. He was a thick, tall, strong man, moving with
+a freedom that bespoke smoothly working muscles. His complexion was
+florid; and this, in conjunction with a sweeping blue-black moustache,
+gave him exactly the appearance of a gambler or bartender. Only as he
+passed the table and responded gravely to the formal salutes, Keith
+caught a flash of his eye. It was gray, hard as steel, forceful, but so
+far from being cold it seemed to glow and change with an inner fire,
+The bartender impression was swept into limbo forever.
+
+"That's one good reason why," said Calhoun Bennett, when this man had
+gone on.
+
+But Markle overflowed with a torrent of vituperative profanity. His
+face was congested and purple with the violence of his emotions. Keith
+stared in astonishment at the depth of hatred stirred. He turned for
+explanation to the man next him, Judge Girvin, a gentleman of the old
+school, weighty, authoritative, a little pompous.
+
+"That is Coleman," Judge Girvin told him. "W.T. Coleman, the leader of
+the vigilance movement of last year."
+
+"That's why," repeated Calhoun Bennett, with quiet vindictiveness,
+"lawlessness, disrespect foh law and order, mob rule. Since this
+strangler business, no man can predict what the lawless element may do!"
+
+This speech was the signal for an outburst against the Vigilance
+Committee, so unanimous and hearty that Keith was rather taken aback.
+He voiced his bewilderment.
+
+"Why, gentlemen, I am, of course, only in the most distant touch with
+these events; but the impression East is certainly very general that
+the Vigilantes did rather a good piece of work in clearing the city of
+crime."
+
+They turned on him with a savagery that took his breath. Keith,
+laughing, held up both hands.
+
+"Don't shoot, don't shoot! I'll come down!" he cried. "I told you I
+didn't know anything about it!"
+
+They checked themselves, suddenly ashamed of their heat. Calhoun
+Bennett voiced their feeling of apology.
+
+"Yo' must accept our excuses, Mr. Keith, but this is a mattah on which
+we feel strongly. Our indignation was naturally not directed against
+yo', suh."
+
+But Judge Girvin, ponderous, formal, dignified, was making a
+pronouncement.
+
+"Undoubtedly, young sir," he rolled forth at Keith, "undoubtedly a
+great many scoundrels were cleared from the city at that time. That no
+one would have the temerity to deny. But you, sir, as a lawyer, realize
+with us that even pure and equitable justice without due process of law
+is against the interests of society as a coherent whole. Infringement
+of law, even for a good purpose, invariably brings about ultimate
+contempt, for all law. In the absence of regularly constituted
+tribunals, as in a primitive society--such as that prior to the
+Constitutional Convention of September, 1849--it may become necessary
+that informal plebiscites be countenanced. But in the presence of
+regularly constituted and appointed tribunals, extra-legal functions
+are not to be undertaken by the chance comer. If defects occur in the
+administration of the law, the remedy is in the hand of the public. The
+voter----" he went on at length, elaborating the legal view. Everybody
+listened with respect and approval until he had finished. But then up
+spoke Judge Caldwell, the round, shining, perspiring, untidy, jovial,
+Silenus-like jurist with the blunt fingers.
+
+"We all agree with you theoretically, Judge," said he. "What these
+other fellows object to, I imagine, is that the law has such a hell of
+a hang fire to it."
+
+Judge Girvin's eyes flashed, and he tossed back his white mane. "The
+due forms of the law are our heritage from the ages!" he thundered
+back. "The so-called delays and technicalities are the checks devised
+by human experience against the rash judgments and rasher actions by
+the volatile element of society! They are the safeguards, the bulwarks
+of society! It is better that a hundred guilty men escape than that one
+innocent man should suffer!"
+
+The old judge was magnificent, his eyes alight, his nostrils expanded,
+his head reared back defiantly, all the great power of his magnetism
+and his authority brought to bear. Keith was thrilled. He considered
+that the discussion had been lifted to a high moral plane.
+
+By rights Judge Caldwell should have been crushed, but he seemed
+undisturbed.
+
+"Well," he remarked comfortably, "on that low average we must have
+quite a few innocent men among us after all."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" demanded Judge Girvin, halted in mid career
+and not catching the allusion.
+
+"Surely, Judge, you don't mean to imply that you endorse Coleman and
+his gang?" put in Calhoun Bennett courteously but incredulously.
+
+"Endorse them? Certainly not!" disclaimed Caldwell. "I need my job," he
+added with a chuckle.
+
+Bennett tossed back his hair, and a faint disgust appeared in his dark
+eyes, but he said nothing more. Caldwell lit a cigar with pudgy fingers.
+
+"My advice to you," he said to Markle, "is that if you think you're
+going to have to kill this man in self-defence"--he rolled an unabashed
+and comical eye at the company--"you be sure to see our old friend,
+Sheriff Webb, gets you to jail promptly." He heaved to his feet, "Might
+even send him advance word," he suggested, and waddled away toward the
+bar.
+
+A dead silence succeeded his departure. None of the younger men
+ventured a word. Finally Judge Girvin, with a belated idea of upholding
+the honour of the bench, turned to Keith.
+
+"Judge Caldwell's humour is a little trying at times, but he is
+essentially sound."
+
+The young Englishman, Morrell, uttered a high cackle.
+
+"Quite right," he observed; "he'll fix it all right for you, Markle."
+
+At the bad taste of what they thought an example of English stupidity
+every one sat aghast. Keith managed to cover the situation by ordering
+another round of drinks. Morrell seemed quite pleased with himself.
+
+"Got a rise out of the old Johnny, what?" he remarked to Keith aside.
+
+Judge Caldwell returned. The conversation became general. Vast projects
+were discussed with the light touch--public works, the purchase of a
+theatre for the town hall, the sale by auction of city or state lands,
+the extension of wharves, the granting of franchises, and many other
+affairs, involving, apparently, millions of money. All these things
+were spoken of as from the inside. Keith, sipping his drinks quietly,
+sat apart and listened. He felt himself in the current of big affairs.
+Occasionally, men sauntered by, paused a moment. Keith noticed that
+they greeted his companions with respect and deference. He experienced
+a feeling of being at the centre of things. The evening drifted by
+pleasantly.
+
+Along toward midnight, John Sherwood, without a hat, stopped long
+enough to exchange a few joking remarks, then sauntered on.
+
+"I know him," Keith told Calhoun Bennett. "That's John Sherwood. He's
+at our hotel. What does _he_ do?"
+
+"Oh, don't you know who he is?" replied Bennett. "He's the owner of
+this place."
+
+"A gambler?" cried Keith, a trifle dashed.
+
+"Biggest in town. But square."
+
+Keith for a moment was a little nonplussed. The sudden intimacy rose up
+to confront him. They were kind people, and Mrs. Sherwood was
+apparently everything she should be--but a public gambler! Of course he
+had no prejudices--but Nan--
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Keith returned to the hotel very late, and somewhat exalted. He was
+bubbling over with good stories, interesting information, and ideas; so
+he awakened Nan, and sat on the edge of the bed, and proceeded
+enthusiastically to tell her all about it. She was very sleepy. Also an
+exasperated inhabitant of the next room pounded on the thin partition.
+Reluctantly Keith desisted. It took him some time to get to sleep, as
+the excitement was seething in his veins.
+
+He came to consciousness after a restless night. The sun was streaming
+in at the window. He felt dull and heavy, with a slight headache and a
+weariness in all his muscles. Worst of all, Nan, in a ravishing pink
+fluffy affair, was bending over him, her eyes dancing with amusement
+and mischief.
+
+"And how is my little madcap this morning?" she inquired with mock
+solicitude. This stung Keith to some show of energy, and he got up.
+
+The sun was really very bright. A dash of cold water made him feel
+better. Enthusiasm began to flow back like a tide. The importance of
+the evening before reasserted its claims on his imagination. As he
+dressed he told Nan all about it. In the midst of a glowing eulogy of
+their prospects, he checked himself with a chuckle.
+
+"Guess what the Sherwoods are," said he.
+
+Nan, who had been half listening up to this time, gave him her whole
+attention.
+
+"A gambler! A common gambler!" she repeated after him, a little
+dismayed.
+
+"I felt the same way for a minute or so," he answered her tone
+cheerfully. "But after all I remembered--you must remember--that
+society here is very mixed. And anyway, Sherwood is no 'common
+gambler'; I should say he was a most _un_common gambler!" He chuckled
+at his little joke. "All sorts of people are received here. We've got
+to get used to that. And certainly no one could hope anywhere to find
+nicer--more presentable--people."
+
+She nodded, but with a reservation.
+
+"Surely nowhere would you find kinder people," went on Keith. "See how
+they took us in!"
+
+"Look out they don't take you in, Milton," she interjected suddenly.
+
+Keith, brought up short, sobered at this.
+
+"That is unjust, Nan," he said gravely.
+
+She said nothing, but showed no signs of having been convinced. After
+her first need had passed, Nan Keith's natural reserve had asserted
+itself. This was the result of heredity and training, as part of
+herself, something she could not help. Its tendency was always to draw
+back from too great or too sudden intimacies. There was nothing
+snobbish in this; it was a sort of instinct, a natural reaction. She
+liked Mrs. Sherwood, admired her slow, complete poise, approved her air
+of breeding and the things by which she had surrounded herself. The
+older woman's kindness had struck in her a deep chord of appreciation.
+But somehow circumstances had hurried her too much. Her defensive
+antagonism, not to Mrs. Sherwood as a person, but to sudden intimacy as
+such, had been aroused. It had had, in her own mind, no excuse. She
+knew she ought to be grateful and cordial; she felt that she was not
+quite ready. The fact that the Sherwoods had proved to be "common
+gamblers" gave just the little excuse her conscience needed to draw
+back a trifle. This, it should be added, was also quite instinctive,
+not at all a formulated thought.
+
+She said nothing for some time; then remarked mysteriously:
+
+"Perhaps that's why they go to meet boats."
+
+Keith, who was miles beyond the Sherwoods by now, looked bewildered.
+
+Keith had letters of business introduction to Palmer, Cook & Co., a
+banking firm powerful and respected at the time, but destined to become
+involved in scandal. The most pressing need, both he and Nan had
+determined, was a house of their own; the hotel was at once
+uncomfortable and expensive. Accordingly a callow, chipper,
+self-confident, blond little clerk was assigned to show them about. He
+had arrived from the East only six months ago; but this was six months
+earlier than the Keiths, so he put on all the airs of an old-timer. In
+a two-seated calash, furnished by the bankers, they drove to the
+westerly part of the town. The plank streets soon ran out into sand or
+rutty earth roads. These bored their way relentlessly between sand
+hills in the process of removal. Steam paddies coughed and clanked in
+all directions. Many houses had, by these operations, been left perched
+high and dry far above the grade of the new streets. Often the sand was
+crumbling away from beneath their outer corners. All sorts of
+nondescript ramshackle and temporary stairs had been improvised to get
+their inhabitants in or out. The latter seemed to be clinging to their
+tenements as long as possible.
+
+"They often cave in," explained the clerk, "and the whole kit and
+kaboodle comes sailing down into the street. Sometimes it happens at
+night," he added darkly.
+
+"But isn't anybody hurt?" cried Nan.
+
+"Lots of 'em," replied the clerk cheerfully "Git dap!"
+
+They now executed a flank attack on the "fashionable" quarter of the
+town.
+
+"They're grading the street down below," the clerk justified his
+roundabout course.
+
+Here were a number of isolated, scattered wooden houses, of some size
+and of much scroll and jigsaw work. Some of them had little ornamental
+iron fencelets running along their ridgepoles, or lightning rods on the
+chimneys or at the corners, although thunderstorms were practically
+unknown. The clerk at once began to talk of these as "mansions." He
+drew up before one of them, hitched the horse, and invited his clients
+to descend. Nan looked at the exterior a trifle doubtfully. It was a
+high-peaked, slender house, drawn together as though it felt cold; with
+carved wooden panels over each window, miniature balconies with
+elaborate spindly columns beneath, and a haughty, high, narrow porch
+partially clothing a varnished front door flanked with narrow strips of
+coloured glass.
+
+The clerk produced a key. The interior also was high and narrow. Much
+glistening varnish characterized the front hall. They inspected one
+after another the various rooms. The house was partly furnished. In the
+showrooms hung heavy red curtains held back by cords with gilt tassels.
+Each fireplace was framed by a mantel of white marble. But the glory
+was the drawing-room. This had been frescoed in pale blue, and all
+about the wall and even across part of the ceiling had been draped
+festoon after festoon of fishnet. Only this was not real fishnet, as a
+closer inspection showed. It had been cunningly painted! In the dim
+light, and to a person with an optimistic imagination, the illusion was
+almost perfect. Nan choked suddenly at the sight of this; then her eyes
+widened to a baby stare, and she become preternaturally solemn.
+
+They looked it all over from top to bottom; the clerk fairly tiptoeing
+about with the bent-backed air of one who handles a precious jade vase.
+From the front windows he showed them a really magnificent view, with
+the blue waters of the bay shining, and the Contra Costa shore
+shimmering in the haze.
+
+"In the residence next door to the west dwell most desirable
+neighbours," he urged, "the Morrells. They are English, or at least he
+is."
+
+"I met him last night," said Keith to Nan; "he looked like a good sort."
+
+"Who is in the big house over there?" asked Nan, indicating a very
+elaborate structure diagonally opposite.
+
+"That--oh, that--well, that is in rather a state of transition, as it
+were," stammered the little clerk, and at once rattled on about
+something else. This magnificent mansion, he explained, was the only
+one Palmer, Cook & Co. had on their lists for the moment.
+
+Therefore he drove them back to the Bella Union. Keith departed with
+him to look up a suitable office downtown.
+
+Nan bowed solemnly to his solemn salutation in farewell, and turned as
+quickly as she could to the interior of the hotel. Sherwood sat in his
+accustomed place, his big steel spectacles on his nose, his paper
+spread out before him. He arose and bowed. She nodded, but did not
+pause. Once inside the hall, she picked up her skirts and fairly flew
+up the stairs to her room. Slamming the door shut, she locked it, then
+sank on the edge of the bed and laughed--laughed until she wiped the
+tears from her cheeks, rocking back and forth and hugging herself in an
+ecstasy. Every few moments she would pull up; then some unconsidered
+enormity would strike her afresh and she would go off into another
+paroxysm. After a while, much relieved, she wiped her eyes and arose.
+
+"This place will be the death of me yet," she told her distorted image
+in the mirror.
+
+She rummaged in one of her trunks, produced writing materials, and
+started a letter to an Eastern friend. This occupied her fully for two
+hours. At that period it was customary to "indite epistles" with a
+"literary flavour," a practice that immensely tickled those who did the
+inditing. Nan became wholly interested and quite pleased with herself.
+Her first impressions, she found when she came to write them down, were
+stimulating and interesting. She was full of enthusiasm; but had she
+been capable of a real analysis she would have found it quite different
+from Keith's enthusiasm. She looked on this strange, uncouth, vital
+city from the outside, from the superior standpoint. She appreciated it
+as she would have appreciated the "quaintness" of the villagers in some
+foreign town.
+
+About noon Keith returned.
+
+"I've looked into every possibility," he told her. "Honest, Nan, I
+don't see exactly what we are to do unless we build for ourselves. That
+Boyle house is the only house in town for rent--that is of any size and
+in a respectable quarter. You see they are too new out here to have
+built houses for rent yet; and if you find any vacant at all, it is
+sheer good fortune. Of course to stay in this little box is impossible,
+and--"
+
+She had been contemplating him, her eyes dancing with amusement.
+
+"You've taken it!" she accused him.
+
+"Well--I--yes," he admitted, a little red.
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I knew it," she said. "When can we move in? I want to get started."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+Keith's first plunge into the teeming life of the place had to suffice
+him for all the rest of that week. There seemed so many pressing things
+to do at home. The Boyle house was only partly furnished. Each morning
+he and Nan went downtown and prospected for things needed. This was
+Nan's first experience of the sort; and she confessed to a ludicrous
+surprise over the fact that pots, pans, brooms, kitchen utensils, and
+such homely matters had to be thought of and bought.
+
+"I had a sort of notion they grew on the premises," she said.
+
+Mrs. Sherwood gave them much valuable advice, particularly as to
+auctions. In the Keiths limited experience auctions generally had meant
+cheap or second-hand articles, but out here the reverse was the case. A
+madness possessed otherwise conservative Eastern merchants--especially
+of the staid city of Boston--to send out on speculation immense cargoes
+of all sorts of goods. These were the despair of consignees. Heavy
+freights, high interest charges, tremendous warehouse rates, speedily
+ate up whatever chance of profits a fresh consignment might have. The
+only solution was to sell out as promptly as possible; and the quickest
+method was the auction. Therefore, auctions were everywhere in
+progress, and the professional auctioneers were a large, influential,
+and skilful class of people. Their advertisements made the bulk of the
+newspapers. They dressed well, carried an air of consequence, furnished
+refreshments, brass bands, or other entertainments to their patrons.
+The era of fabulous prices was at an end, but the era of wild
+speculation as to what the public was going to want was in full tide.
+Keith and Nan found these auctions great fun, and piece by piece they
+accumulated the items of their house furnishing. It was slow work, but
+amusing. At times Mrs. Sherwood accompanied them, but not often. Her
+advice was always good.
+
+As to Mrs. Sherwood, Nan Keith found her attitude very vague. There was
+no doubt that she liked her personally, admired her slow, purposeful,
+half-indolent movements, the poise of her small, patrician head, the
+unconscious, easy grace of her body, the direct commonsense quality of
+her mind. One met her face to face; there were no frills and furbelows
+of the spirit. Also, Nan was grateful for the other woman's first
+kindness and real sympathy, and she wanted to "play the game." But, on
+the other hand, all her social training and her instinct of formalism
+tended to hold her aloof. She blamed herself intellectually for this
+feeling; but since it was a feeling, and had nothing to do with
+intellect, it persisted.
+
+In the auction rooms, also, she seemed to meet--be formally introduced
+to--a bewildering number of people, most of whom she could not place at
+all. There seemed to be no reason for meeting them; certainly she would
+not have met them in the East. Nevertheless, they all shook her by the
+hand, and bowed to her whenever subsequently they passed her on the
+street. Keith told her this was all usual and proper in this new and
+mixed social order; and she was perfectly willing to make the effort.
+She was really charming to everybody. The consciousness that she was
+successfully adapting herself to their primitive provincial scope, and
+her very gracious condescension to all types, filled her with respect
+for her democracy and breadth of mind.
+
+The afternoon they spent at the house receiving boxes and packages.
+Keith worked busily, happily, feverishly, in his shirt sleeves. He
+attacked the job on the principle of a whirlwind campaign, hammering,
+ripping, throwing papers down, deciding instantly where this or that
+chair or table was to stand, tearing on to the next, enjoying himself
+dustily and hugely.
+
+Nan was more leisurely. She found time to gossip with the drayman who
+brought up the goods, actually came to a liking and a warm friendly
+feeling for him as a person. This was a new experience for Nan, and she
+explored it curiously.
+
+John McGlynn was a teamster, but likewise a thoroughly independent and
+capable citizen. He was of the lank, hewn, lean-faced, hawk-nosed type,
+deliberate in movement and speech, with a twinkling, contemplative,
+appraising eye, and an unhurried drawl. He told Nan he had come out in
+'49.
+
+"No, ma'am," he disclaimed vigorously, "I didn't go to the mines. I am
+a teamster, and I always did teaming." He did not add, as he might have
+done, that in those days of the individual he had been an important
+influence.
+
+His great pride was his team and wagon, and that pride was justified.
+The wagon was a heavy flat affair, gayly decorated, and on the sides of
+the box were paintings of landscapes. The horses were great,
+magnificent creatures, with arching thick necks, long wavy manes and
+forelocks, soft, intelligent eyes, and with great hoofs and hairy
+fetlocks. They carried themselves in conscious pride, Their harness was
+heavy with silver and with many white and coloured rings. In colour
+they were dapple gray.
+
+"That team," said John McGlynn, "is a perfect match. Took me two years
+to get them together. Wuth a mint of money. That Kate, there, is a
+regular character. You'd be surprised how cute she is. I often wonder
+who Kate _is_. She must be some very famous woman."
+
+John McGlynn was a very wonderful and very accommodating person, Nan
+thought. He would help carry things in, and was willing to unpack or to
+carry out the mess Keith's mad career left behind, it. Also he cast an
+eye on the garden possibilities, and issued friendly, expert advice to
+which Nan listened, breathless. They held long intimate consultations
+as to the treatment of the soil.
+
+"A few posies does sort of brighten things up; they're wuth while,"
+quoth John.
+
+Without previous consultation, he appeared one day accompanied by a
+rotund, bland, gorgeous Chinaman, perched beside him on his elevated
+seat.
+
+"This is Wing Woh, a friend of mine," he announced. "You got to have a
+Chink, of course. You can't run that sized house without help. Wing
+knows all the Chinks in town, and bosses about half of them."
+
+Wing Woh descended and without a word walked into the house. He was a
+very ornate person, dressed in a skull cap with a red coral button
+atop, a brocaded pale lavendar tunic of silk, baggy pale green trousers
+tied close around the ankles, snow-white socks and the typical shoe.
+Gravely, solemnly, methodically he went over the entire house; then
+returned and clambered up beside John.
+
+"All light," he vouchsafed to the astonished Nan.
+
+Next morning she found waiting on the veranda a smiling "china boy"
+dressed all in clean white. A small cloth bundle lay at his feet.
+
+"My name Wing Sam," he announced; "I wo'k you thi'ty dolla' month.
+Where you keep him bloom?"
+
+That day John McGlynn stopped after unloading his boxes to give a
+little advice.
+
+"Chinks are queer," said he. "When you show this fellow how to do
+anything, be sure to show him right, because that's the way he's going
+to do it forever after. You can't change him. And show him; don't tell
+him. And let him do things his own way as much as you can, instead of
+insisting on your way."
+
+McGlynn also advised Keith as to where he could to the best advantage
+hire a horse and buggy by the month.
+
+"You want a good safe animal, so Mrs. Keith can drive him; but you
+don't want a cow. Jump aboard and I'll take you around. Never mind your
+coat," he told Keith, "it's warm."
+
+So they "jumped aboard" and drove down the street. Nan gurgled with
+amusement over the episode. She sat on the high seat beside John
+McGlynn's lank figure, above the broad backs of the great horses; and
+Keith in his shirtsleeves, his hair every which way, a smudge of black
+across his nose, balanced in the flat dray body behind. Nan tried to
+imagine the sensation they would create in Baltimore, and laughed aloud.
+
+"Is sort of funny," commented John McGlynn sympathetically. "But
+everything goes out here."
+
+Nan, aghast at the uncanny perspicacity of the man, choked silently. In
+her world there had always been a sort of vague, unexpressed feeling
+that the "lower classes" were dull.
+
+They used the horse and buggy a great deal. It was delivered at the
+hotel door every morning and taken from the same place every evening.
+Innumerable errands downtown for things forgotten kept it busy. At
+night they returned to the hotel pretty well tired out. It was a
+tremendous task, much as they might be enjoying it.
+
+"Seems to me the more we do the worse it gets," said Keith. "Let's dig
+some sort of a hole and move in anyway."
+
+"In a few days," agreed Nan, who as general-in-chief had a much clearer
+idea of the actual state of affairs than the dusty private.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+One morning the accumulated fatigue had its way, and they overslept
+scandalously. It was after ten o'clock before they were ready to drive
+up the street. As they turned the corner from Kearney Street they were
+saluted by the ringing of numerous bells.
+
+"Why, it's Sunday!" cried Keith, after a moment's calculation. In the
+unexpectedness of this discovery he reined in the horse.
+
+"It will never do to work to-day," she answered his unspoken thought.
+"I suppose we ought to go to church."
+
+But Keith turned the horse's head to the left.
+
+"Church?" he returned with great decision. "We're going on a spree.
+This is a day of rest, and we've earned it."
+
+"Where?" asked Nan, a trifle shocked at his implication as to church.
+
+"I haven't the remotest idea," said Keith.
+
+They drove along a plank road leading out of town. It proved to be
+thronged with people, all going in the same direction. The shuffle of
+their feet on the planks and the murmur of their many voices were
+punctuated by the _klop, klop_ of hoofs and occasional shouts of
+laughter. All races of the earth seemed to be represented. It was like
+a Congress of the Nations at some great exposition. French, Germans,
+Italians, Russians, Dutchmen, British, were to be recognized and to be
+expected. But also were strange peoples--Turks, Arabs, Negroes,
+Chinese, Kanakas, East Indians, the gorgeous members of the Spanish
+races, and nondescript queer people to whom neither Nan nor Keith could
+assign a native habitat. At every step one or the other called
+delighted attention to some new exhibit. Most extraordinary were,
+possibly, the men from the gold mines of the Sierras, These were mostly
+young, but long haired, bearded, rough, wilder than any mortal man need
+be. They walked with a wide swagger. Their clothes were exaggeratedly
+coarse, but they ornamented themselves with bright silk handkerchiefs;
+with feathers, flowers; with squirrel or buck-tails In their hats; with
+long heavy chains of nuggets; with glittering and prominently displayed
+pistols, revolvers, stilettos, knives, or dirks. Some had plaited their
+beards in three tails; others had tied their long hair under their
+chins. But even the most bizarre seemed to attract no attention. San
+Francisco was accustomed to it.
+
+Indeed, the few fashionable strollers were much more stared at. Most of
+the well dressed were in some sort of vehicle. The Keiths saw many
+buggies like their own. A few very smart, or rather very ornamental,
+double rigs dashed by. In these sat generally good-looking but rather
+loud young women, who stared straight ahead with an assumption of
+supreme indifference. Hacks or omnibuses careered along. In these the
+company was generally merry but mixed, though occasionally a
+good-looking couple had hired an ordinary public conveyance. Horsemen
+and horsewomen were numerous. Some of these were very dashing indeed,
+the women with long trailing skirts and high hats from which floated
+veils; the men with skin-tight trousers strapped under varnished boots,
+and long split-skirted coats. Others were simply plain a-horseback. The
+native Californians with their heavy, silver-mounted saddles, braided
+rawhide reins and bridles, their sombreros, their picturesque costumes,
+and their magnificent fiery horses made a fine appearance. Occasionally
+screaming, bouncing Chinese, hanging on with both hands, would dash by
+at full speed, their horses quite uncontrolled, their garments flying,
+ecstatically scared and happy, causing great confusion, and pursued by
+curses.
+
+"Evidently we're headed in the right direction," remarked Keith.
+
+After a drive of two or three miles, never far from the bay they
+arrived at what had evidently been a sleepy little village. The
+original low, picturesque, red-tiled adobe buildings still clustered
+about the Mission. But much had been added. The Keiths found themselves
+in an immense confusion. Screaming signs cried everywhere for
+attention--advertising bear pits, cock fights, theatrical attractions,
+side shows, and the like. Innumerable hotels and restaurants, small,
+cheap, and tawdry, offered their hospitality, the liquid part of which
+was already being widely accepted. Men were striking pegs with hammers,
+throwing balls at negroes' heads thrust through canvas, shooting at
+targets. A racecourse was surrounded. Dust rose in choking clouds, and
+the sun beat down heavily.
+
+"Goodness, what a place!" cried Nan in dismay.
+
+Had they known it, there were many quiet, attractive, outlying resorts
+catering to and frequented by the fashionables, for "the Mission" was
+at that time in its heyday as a Sunday amusement for all classes. As it
+was, Keith drove on through the village, and so out to a winding
+country road.
+
+"This is heavenly," said Nan, and laid aside her veil.
+
+The road wound and meandered through the low hills of the peninsula.
+The sun beat down on them in a flood, only its heat, no longer
+oppressive, had become grateful.
+
+"Doesn't it feel good on your back!" exclaimed Nan, recognizing this
+quality. "One seems to soak it in--just the way a thirsty plant soaks
+water."
+
+The rounded hills were turning a ripe soft brown. Across their crests
+the sky looked very blue. High in the heavens some buzzards were
+sailing. Innumerable quail called. On tree tops perched yellow-breasted
+meadow larks with golden voices. In the bottom of the narrow valley
+where the road wound were green willow trees and a little trickle of
+water. From the ground came upward waves of heat and a pungent clean
+odour of some weed. Nan was excited and keenly receptive to impressions.
+
+"It's a hot day!" she cried, "and the road is dusty. By rights it ought
+to be disagreeable. But it isn't! Why is that?"
+
+The little valley widened into a pocket. Back from the road stood a low
+white much house. Its veranda was smothered in the gorgeousness of
+bougainvillaea. A grave, elderly, bearded Spaniard, on horseback,
+passed them at a smooth shuffling little trot, and gave them a sonorous
+_buenas dias_, The road mounted rapidly. Once when Keith had reined in
+to breathe the horse, they heard the droning crescendo hum of a new
+swarm of bees passing overhead.
+
+"Isn't this nice!" cried Nan, snuggling against Keith's arm.
+
+Suddenly, over the crest and down the other side, they came on sand
+hills. The horse plodded along at a walk. Nan hung far out watching,
+fascinated, the smooth, clean sand dividing before the wheels and
+flowing back over the rim, and so over a little rise, and the sea was
+before them.
+
+"Oh, the Pacific!" exclaimed she, sitting up very straight.
+
+The horse broke into a trot along the smooth hard shore. The wind was
+coming in from the wide spaces. A taste of salt was in the air. Foam
+wreaths advanced and receded with the edge of the wash, or occasionally
+blew in a mass across the flat, until gradually they scattered and
+dissipated. The horse pricked up his ears, breathed deep of the fresh
+cool air, expanded his nostrils snorting softly, pretended to shy at
+the foam wreaths. The wash advanced and drew back with a soft hissing
+sound; the wind blew flat and low, so that even on the wet parts a
+fine, white, dried mist of sand was always scurrying and hurrying along
+close to the ground. Outside the surges reared and fell with a crash.
+
+After the tepid or heated atmosphere of the hills the air was
+unexpectedly cool and vital. A flock of sickle-billed curlews stood
+motionless until they were within fifty yards; then rose and flew just
+inside the line of the breakers, uttering indescribably weird and
+lonely cries. A long file of pelicans, their wings outspread, sailed
+close to the surface of the ocean, undulating over the waves and into
+the hollows exactly paralleling, at a height of only a few feet, the
+restless contour of the sea. Occasionally they would all flop their
+wings two or three times in unison.
+
+"I believe it's a sort of game--they're having fun!" stated Nan with
+conviction.
+
+Everything seemed to be having fun. Close to the wash were forty or
+fifty tiny white sanderlings in a compact band. When the wash receded
+they followed it with an incredibly rapid twinkling of little legs; and
+when again the wave rushed, shoreward, _scuttle, scuttle, scuttle_ went
+they, keeping always just at the edge of the water. Never were they
+forced to wing; yet never did they permit the distance to widen between
+themselves and the inrushing or outrushing wave. There were also sundry
+ducks. These swam just inside the breakers, and were carried backward
+and forward by the surges. Always they faced seaward. At the very last
+instant, as a great curler bent over them, they dipped their heads and
+dived. If the wave did not break, however, they rode over its top.
+Their accuracy of eye was uncanny. Time after time they gauged the wave
+so closely that they just flipped over the crest as it crashed with a
+roar beneath them. A tenth of a second later would have destroyed them.
+Keith reined up the horse to watch them and the sanderlings.
+
+"It _is_ a game," he agreed after a while, "just like the pelicans. It
+isn't considered sporting for sanderlings to get more than three inches
+away from the edge of the wash; or for a duck to dive unless he
+actually has to. It must be a game; for they certainly aren't catching
+anything."
+
+At this moment the sanderlings as though at a signal sprang into the
+air, wheeled back and forth with instantaneous precision, and departed.
+The ducks, too, dove, and came up only outside the surf.
+
+"Good little sportsmen," laughed Keith; "they play the game for its own
+sake. They don't like an audience."
+
+After a few miles they came to a cliff reaching down to the beach and
+completely barring the way. Off shore were rocky islets covered with
+seals and sea lions. A lone blue heron stood atop a sand dune,
+absolutely motionless.
+
+"I don't know where we are, or how we get out," said Keith, "but I'm
+going to take that chap there as a sign post," and he turned his horse
+directly toward the heron.
+
+Sure enough, a track led them through the sand, and by a zigzag route
+to the top of the knoll that had barred their way along the shore. They
+came to an edge. Before them lay an arm of the sea, sweeping and
+eddying with a strong incoming tide. Over the way stood a great
+mountain, like a sentinel. Far to their right the arm widened. There
+was a glimpse of sparkling blue, and of the pearl of far-off hills, and
+the haze of a distant dim peak.
+
+"It's the Golden Gate!" cried Keith in sudden enlightenment.
+
+He told her that the mountain over the way must be Tamalpais; that the
+pearl-gray, far-off hills must be Contra Costa; that the distant dim
+peak was undoubtedly Mount Diabolo. She repeated the syllables after
+him softly, charmed by their music.
+
+Simultaneously they discovered that they were hungry. The wind whipped
+in from the sea. An outpost tent or so marked the distant invisible
+city over the hills. Keith turned his horse's head toward them. They
+drove back across what are now the Presidio hills.
+
+But in a hollow they came upon another ranch house, like the
+first--low, white, red roofed, covered with vines. Keith insisted on
+driving to it. A number of saddled horses dozed before the door, a
+half-dozen dogs sprawled in the dust, fowls picked their way between
+the horses' legs or over the dogs' recumbent forms. At the sound of
+wheels several people came from the shadow of the porch into the open.
+They proved to be Spanish Californians dressed in the flat sombreros,
+the short velvet jackets, the slashed trousers, and soft leather
+_zapatos_. The men, handsome, lithe, indolent, pressed around the
+wheels of the buggy, showing their white teeth in pleasant smiles.
+
+"Can we get anything to eat here?" asked Keith.
+
+They all smiled again most amiably. The elder swept off his hat with a
+free gesture.
+
+"_A piedes ouestros, senora_," he said, "_pero no hablo Ingles. Habla
+usted Espanol?_"
+
+Keith understood the last three words.
+
+"No," he shook his head violently, "no _Espanol_. Hungry." He pointed
+to Nan, then to himself: "She, me, hungry."
+
+This noble effort brought no results, except that the Californians
+looked more politely distressed and solicitous than ever.
+
+"They don't understand us," murmured Nan; "don't you think we'd better
+drive on?"
+
+But Keith, who had now descended from the buggy, resorted to sign
+language. He rubbed his stomach pathetically and pointed down his open
+mouth; as an afterthought he rubbed the horse's belly; then, with
+apparent intention, he advanced toward Nan. A furious red inundated her
+face and neck, and she held her little parasol threateningly between
+them. Everybody burst into laughter.
+
+"_Si! si! si!_" they cried.
+
+Several started to unharness the horse. Others held out their hands.
+After a moment's hesitation Nan accepted their aid and descended.
+Keith's performance was evidently considered a great joke.
+
+On the low veranda were two women, one most enormously fat, the other
+young and lithe. They were dressed almost exactly alike, their
+blue--black hair parted smoothly over their foreheads but built up to a
+high structure behind, filmy _rebosas_ over high combs, and skirts with
+many flowered flounces. They both had soft, gentle eyes, and they were
+both so heavily powdered that their complexions were almost blue. All
+the men explained to them at once. The younger answered gayly; the
+older listened with entire placidity. But when the account was
+finished, she reached out to pat Nan's hand, and to smile reassuringly.
+
+Various foods and a flask of red wine were brought. There was no
+constraint, for Keith threw himself with delighted abandon into
+experiments with sign language.
+
+"_Esta simpatica_," the Californians told each other over and again.
+
+Their manners were elaborate, dignified, deliberate, and beautiful.
+Keith, ordinarily rather direct and brusque, to Nan's great amusement
+became exactly like them. They outvied each other. The women touched
+smilingly the stuff of Nan's gown, and directly admired her various
+feminine trappings. She, thus encouraged, begged permission to examine
+more closely the lace of the _rebosas_ or the beautiful embroidery on
+the shawls. A little feeling of intimacy drew them all together,
+although they understood no word of each other's language.
+
+One of the dogs now approached and gravely laid its nose on Nan's knee,
+gazing up at her with searching soft eyes. The older woman cried out
+scandalized, but Nan shook her head, and patted the beast's nose.
+
+"You like?" asked the woman.
+
+"Why, you do talk English!" cried Nan.
+
+But either these two words were all the woman had, or she was unwilling
+to adventure further.
+
+"You like?" she repeated again, after a moment, and then, observing
+Nan's interest, she uttered a command to one of the numerous ragged
+small boys standing about. The urchin darted away, to return after a
+moment with a basket, which he emptied on the ground. Four fuzzy
+puppies rolled out.
+
+"Oh, the darlings!" cried Nan.
+
+The little animals proceeded at once to roll one another over, growling
+fiercely, charging uncertainly about, gazing indeterminately through
+their blue infantile eyes. The mother left her position at Nan's knee
+to hover over them; turning them over with her nose, licking them,
+skipping nimbly sidewise when they charged down upon her with an idea
+of nourishment.
+
+Nan was enchanted. She left the bench to stoop to their level, tumbling
+them over on their backs; playfully boxing their ears, working them up
+to a wild state of yapping enthusiasm.
+
+"The little darlings!" she cried; "just see their fat little tummies!
+And their teeth are just like needles. No, no, you mustn't! You'll tear
+my flounces! Look, Milton, see this little rascal pull at my
+handkerchief!"
+
+Her cheeks were flushed, and as she looked up laughing from beneath her
+hat, she made a very charming picture.
+
+"You like," stated the Californian woman with conviction.
+
+After a while it became time to go. Vaqueros brought out the horse and
+harnessed it to the buggy. Keith made a movement to offer payment, but
+correctly interpreted the situation and refrained. They mounted the
+vehicle.
+
+"_Muchas gracias!_" Nan enunciated slowly.
+
+This effort was received with an admiring acclaim that flushed Nan with
+an inordinate pride. She had picked up the phrase from hearing it used
+at table. The fat woman came forward, one of the puppies tucked under
+her arm. In spite of her apparently unwieldy size she moved gracefully
+and lightly.
+
+"You like?" she inquired, holding the squirming puppy at arm's length.
+
+"_Si, si, muchas gracias!_" cried Nan eagerly, and employing at once
+all her Spanish vocabulary. She deposited the puppy in her lap and
+reached out to shake hands. Keith flicked the horse with his whip. He,
+too, had recollected a word of Spanish, and he used it now.
+
+"_Adios!_" he shouted.
+
+But their hosts had a better phrase.
+
+"_Vaya Con Dios!_" they cried in chorus.
+
+Nan was in raptures over the whole episode, but especially over the
+puppy. The latter, with the instantaneous adaptability of extreme
+youth, had snuggled down into a compact ball, and was blinking one hazy
+dark blue eye upward at his new mistress.
+
+"Weren't they nice people," cried Nan, "and wasn't it an adventure? And
+isn't he just the dearest, cutest little thing? You're not a little
+Spanish dog any more, you know. You're a--what is it they call us?--oh,
+yes! You're a gringo now. Why, that's a fine idea! Your name is Gringo!"
+
+And Gringo he became henceforth.
+
+"What kind of a dog is he?" she asked.
+
+Keith grinned sardonically.
+
+"Of course I do not know his honoured father," said he, "so I cannot
+offer an opinion as to that half of him. But on his mother's side he is
+bloodhound, bulldog, collie, setter, pointer, St. Bernard, and Old
+English sheepdog."
+
+"Which?"' asked Nan puzzled.
+
+"All," asserted Keith.
+
+Now suddenly the sun was blotted out. They looked back: a white bank of
+fog was rolling in from the sea. It flowed over the hills like a flood,
+reaching long wisps down into the hollows, setting inertly in the flats
+and valleys, the upper part rolling on and over in a cascade. Beneath
+its shadow the warmth and brightness of the world had died.
+
+"It strikes me we're going to be cold," remarked Keith, urging forward
+the horse.
+
+The roadbed became more solid, and they trotted along freely. The
+horse, also, was anxious to get home. Signs of habitations thickened.
+The wide waste hills of the ranchos had been left behind. Here and
+there were outlying dwellings, or road houses, the objectives of
+pleasure excursions of various sorts and degrees of respectability from
+the city. From one of the latter came a hail.
+
+"Oh, Keith! I say, Keith!"
+
+From a group of people preparing to enter a number of vehicles two men
+came running. Ben Sansome and Morrell, somewhat out of breath, came
+alongside. They were a little flushed and elevated, but very cordial,
+and full of reproaches that Keith had so entirely dropped out of sight
+during the past week.
+
+"I tell you, you must come over to our house for supper," said Morrell
+finally. "Everybody comes."
+
+"The Morrells' Sunday night suppers are an institution," supplemented
+Sansome.
+
+"I wish I could persuade you," urged Morrell. "I wonder where Mimi is.
+I know Mrs. Morrell ought to call, and all that sort of thing, but this
+is not a conventional place. We live next door, y'know. Do be
+delightful and neighbourly, and come!"
+
+Nan hesitated; but the lure of the well-dressed company, so thoroughly
+at ease with one another, was irresistible in the reaction. She
+accepted.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+The Keiths arrived to find the Morrells' informal party in full blast.
+The front parlour was filled with a number of people making a great
+noise. Out of the confusion Mrs. Morrell arose and came to them, as
+they stood where the China-man had abandoned them.
+
+"Mimi" Morrell was a tall woman, not fat, but amply built, with a full
+bust and hips. Her hair was of the peculiar metallic golden blond that
+might or might not have been natural; her skin smooth and white, but
+coarse in grain, would look better at night than by daylight. Her
+handsome, regular features were rather hard and set in their expression
+when in absolute repose, but absolute repose was rare to them. In
+action they softened to a very considerable feminine allurement. She
+moved with decision, and possibly her general attitude smacked the
+least bit of running things. She gave the impression of keeping an eye
+open for everything going on about her. To Nan she seemed tremendous,
+overwhelming, and a little magnificent.
+
+Immediately, without introductions, the whole party moved through the
+double doors into the dining-room. There they took their places at a
+table set out lavishly with food and drink in great quantity. Mrs.
+Morrell explained in her high level voice that servants and service
+were always dispensed with at her Sunday nights. She rather carelessly
+indicated a seat to Mrs. Keith, and remarked to Keith that he was to
+sit next herself. Otherwise the party distributed itself. Ben Sansome
+promptly annexed the chair next to Nan, and started in to make himself
+agreeable.
+
+A complete freemasonry obtained among all the party. There was a great
+deal of shouting back and forth, from one end of the table to the
+other. Each seemed to have a nickname. One young man was known
+exclusively as "Popsy," another answered as "Zou-zou," a third was
+called "Billy Goat"; a very vivid, flashing young woman was "Teeny,"
+and so on. They conversed, or rather shouted, to a great extent by
+means of catch words or phrases, alluding evidently to events the
+purport of which the Keiths could by no possibility guess. There were a
+great many private jokes, the points of which were obvious to only one
+or two. Every once in a while some one would say "Number Seven!" and
+everybody would go off into convulsions of laughter. The vivid young
+woman called Teeny suddenly shrieked, "How about Friday, the
+twenty-third?" at Popsy, to Popsy's obvious consternation and
+confusion. Immediately every one turned on either Popsy or Teeny,
+demanding the true inwardness of the remark. Popsy defended himself,
+rather pink and embarrassed. The young woman, a devilish knowing glint
+in her eyes, her red underlip caught between her teeth, refused to
+answer.
+
+Keith warmed to this free and easy atmosphere. He was friendly and
+sympathetic with the lively crowd. But in vain he tried for a point of
+contact. All this badinage depended on a previous knowledge and
+intimacy, and that, of course, he lacked. Mrs. Morrell, sitting beside
+him very straight and commanding, delivered her general remarks in a
+high, clear voice, turning her attention impartially now to one part of
+the noisy table, now to another.
+
+Suddenly she abandoned the company to its own devices, and leaning her
+left elbow on the table, she turned squarely to Keith, enveloping him
+with a magnetic all-for-you look.
+
+"Do you know," she said abruptly, "something tells me you are musical."
+
+"Why, I am, a little," admitted Keith, surprised. "But how could you
+tell?"
+
+"La, now, I was sure you had a voice the first time I heard you speak.
+I adore music, and I can always tell."
+
+"Do you sing, too?" asked Keith.
+
+"I? No, unfortunately. I have no more voice than a crow. I strum a bit,
+but even that has been a good deal neglected lately. There's no
+temptation to keep up one's music here. I don't know a single soul in
+all this city who cares a snap of their finger for it."
+
+"We'll have to have some music together," suggested Keith.
+
+"I'd adore it. Isn't it lucky we're neighbours? I've been so
+interested"--she said it as though she had almost intended to say
+"amused"--"in watching you this past week. You are the most domestic
+man I know. I never saw a man work so singlemindedly at his house and
+home. Domesticity is a rare outworn virtue here, I assure you. It is
+really quite touching to see a man so devoted these days."
+
+She said these things idly, a little disjointedly, looking at him
+steadily all the while. Her manner was detached, and yet somehow it
+impelled him strongly to protest that he was really not a bit domestic.
+
+"Have you met any of the people of the place?" she shifted suddenly,
+
+"Well--I really haven't had much chance yet--a few of the men."
+
+"Well--you'll find things pretty mixed. Don't expect much; one has to
+take things pretty much as one finds them."
+
+To this simple speech was appended one gesture only--a slight raising
+of the eyebrows. Yet the effect was to sweep Keith into the intimacy of
+an inner circle, to suggest that she, too, found society mixed, and to
+imply--very remotely--that at least certain members of the present
+company itself were not quite what he--or she--would choose in another
+environment. In unconscious response to this unspoken thought, Keith
+glanced about the table. There was a good deal of drinking going on;
+and the fun was becoming even more obvious and noisy. Mrs. Morrell
+occasionally sipped at her champagne. She emitted a slight but rather
+disturbing perfume.
+
+"Why did you come out here, anyway?" she asked him. "I can't make out.
+I'm curious."
+
+"Why shouldn't I?" demanded Keith.
+
+"Well, men come here either for money, for adventure, or to make a
+career." She marked each on the tablecloth with the end of a fork.
+"Which is it?"
+
+"Guess," laughed Keith.
+
+"You don't need money--or else you have a wonderful nerve to take the
+Boyle house. I believe you have the nerve, all right. Men with your
+sort of close curly hair are never--bashful!" she laughed shortly.
+
+"Boyle's rent is safe--for a while," admitted Keith.
+
+"Career?" she went on, looking him in the eyes speculatively, and
+allowing her gaze to sink deep into his. He noticed that her eyes were
+a gray green, like semi-precious stones of some sorts, with surface
+lights, but also with grayer radiations that seemed to go below the
+surface to smouldering depths--disturbing eyes, like the perfume.
+"Career?" she repeated. "I think you hold yourself better--a career in
+the riff-raff of this town." She shook her head archly. "But adventure!
+Oh, la! There's plenty of that--all sorts!" She gave the impression of
+meaning a great deal more than she said. "I wish I were a man!" she
+exclaimed, and laughed.
+
+"I'm glad you're not," rejoined Keith sincerely.
+
+She tapped him lightly on the arm with her fan.
+
+"Oh, la!" she cried.
+
+Keith laughed meaningly and mischievously. He was feeling entirely at
+home--in his mental shirtsleeves--thoroughly at ease.
+
+"You're a lawyer, are you not?" she asked him.
+
+"Try to be."
+
+"Going to practise?"
+
+"If any practice comes my way."
+
+She looked at him, smiling slowly.
+
+"Oh, it'll come fast enough." She seized her glass and held it to him.
+"Here's to your career!" she cried. "Bottoms up!"
+
+They clinked glasses and drank.
+
+"You must meet people--influential people," she told him. "We must see
+what we can do; I'll have some of them in."
+
+"You're simply fine to take all this trouble for me!"
+
+She tapped him again on the arm.
+
+"Silly! We take care of our own people, of _course!_ Let's plan it.
+Have you any connections in town at all?"
+
+"Well, I've met quite a few people about town, and I have some letters."
+
+"Casual acquaintances are well enough, but your letters?"
+
+"I have one to Calhoun Bennett, and to Mr. Dempster, and Mr. Farwell,
+and Truett--"
+
+But she was making a wry face.
+
+"What's the matter with, them?" he demanded.
+
+"Cal Bennett's all right--but the others--oh, I suppose they're all
+right in a business way--but--"
+
+"But, what?"
+
+She made a helpless little gesture.
+
+"I can't describe it--you know--the sort that are always so keen on
+doing their _duty!_"
+
+She laughed; and to his subconscious surprise Keith found himself
+saying sympathetically:
+
+"I know the sort of people who always pay their debts!"
+
+They looked into each other's eyes and laughed in comradeship. In sober
+life Keith did his duty reasonably well, and was never far behind
+financially.
+
+She fell silent for a moment; then with a muttered "excuse me," she
+leaned directly across his shoulder to impart something low-voiced and
+giggly to the woman on his right. To do this she leaned her breast
+against his arm and shoulder. The conversation lasted some seconds.
+Keith could not hear a word of it; but he was disturbingly aware of her
+perfume, the softness of her body, and the warmth that struck even
+through the intervening clothing. She drew back with a half apology.
+
+"Feminine nonsense," she told him. "Mere man couldn't be expected to
+understand." She was herself a little flushed from leaning over, but
+she appeared not to notice Keith's rather breathless state. He muttered
+something, and gulped at his champagne.
+
+"Do you know Mrs. Sherwood?" he asked, merely to say something,
+
+But to his surprise Mrs. Morrell answered him shortly, her manner
+changing:
+
+"No, I don't. We draw the line _somewhere_!"
+
+Again she addressed the woman on the right, but this time without
+leaning across:
+
+"Oh, Amy, the fair Patricia has another victim!" and laughed rather
+shrilly. Suddenly she rapped the table with the handle of a knife.
+"Stop it!" she cried to the company at large. "You're making too much
+noise!"
+
+They all turned to her except one youth who was too noisily busy with
+his partner to have heard her. Failing in another attempt to get his
+attention, Mrs. Morrell picked up a chunk of French bread and hurled it
+at him.
+
+"Good shot!" "Bravo!" "Encore!" came a burst of applause, as the bread,
+largely by accident, took him squarely between the eyes.
+
+The youth, though astonished, was game. He retaliated in kind. Keith
+whipped up an empty plate and intercepted it. The youth's partner came
+to his assistance. Keith, a plate in either hand, deftly protected Mrs.
+Morrell from the flying missiles. The implied challenge was instantly
+accepted by all. The air was full of bread. Keith's dexterity was
+tested to the utmost, but he came through the battle with flying
+colours. Everybody threw bread. There was much explosive laughter, that
+soon became fairly exhausting. The battle ceased, both because the
+combatants were out of ammunition, and because they were too weak from
+mirth to proceed. Keith with elaborate mock gallantry turned and
+presented Mrs. Morrell with the two plates.
+
+"The spoils of war!" he told her.
+
+"He should be decorated for conspicuous gallantry on the field of
+battle!" cried some one.
+
+The idea took. But they could find nothing appropriate until Teeny
+McFarlane deliberately stepped up on the table and broke from the glass
+chandelier one of its numerous dangling prisms. This called forth a
+mild protest from Morrell--"Oh, I say!"--which was drowned in a wild
+shriek of delight. The process of stepping down from the table tilted
+Teeny's wide skirts so that for an instant a slim silken leg was
+plainly visible as far as the knee. "Oh! oh!" cried every one. Some
+pretended to be shocked, and covered their faces with spread fingers;
+others feigned to try for another look. Teeny was quite unperturbed.
+
+Keith was the centre of attention and a great success. But there were
+no more tete-a-tetes. Mrs. Morrell managed to convey the idea that she
+was displeased, and Keith was of a sufficiently generous and ingenuous
+disposition to be intrigued by the fact. He had no chance to probe the
+matter. In a moment or so Mrs. Morrell rose and strolled toward the
+drawing-room. The others straggled after her. She rather liked thus to
+emphasize her lack of convention as a hostess, making a pose of never
+remembering the proper thing to do. Now she moved here and there,
+laughing her shrill rather mirthless laugh, calling everybody "dearie,"
+uttering abrupt little platitudes. Keith found himself left behind, and
+rather out in the cold. The company had quite frankly segregated itself
+into couples. The room was well adapted to this, filled as it was with
+comfortable chairs arranged with apparent carelessness two by two. The
+men lighted cigars. Keith saw Nan's eyes widen at this. She was sitting
+near the fire, and Sansome had penned her in beyond the possibility of
+invasion by a third. At this date smoking was a more or less doubtfully
+considered habit, and in the best society men smoked only in certain
+rigidly specified circumstances. In a drawing-room such an action might
+be considered the fair equivalent to powdering the feminine nose.
+
+In such a condition, Keith was left rather awkwardly alone, and was
+fairly thrust upon a fictitious interest in a photograph album, at
+which he glowered for some moments. Then by a well-planned and
+skilfully executed flank movement he caught Mrs. Morrell.
+
+"Look here," he demanded; "what has the standing army done to deserve
+abandonment in a hostile country?"
+
+But she looked at him directly, without response to his playful manner.
+
+"My friend," she said, "this is a pretty free and easy town, as no
+doubt you have observed, and society is very mixed. But we haven't yet
+come to receiving women like Mrs. Sherwood, or relishing their being
+mentioned to us."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with her?" demanded Keith, astonished. "Is she
+as far from respectability as all that?"
+
+"Respectable! That word isn't understood in San Francisco." She
+appeared suddenly to soften. "You're a dear innocent boy, so you are,
+and you've got a dear innocent little wife, and I'll have to look out
+for you."
+
+Before the deliberate and superior mockery in her eyes as well as in
+her voice, Keith felt somehow like a small boy. He was stung to a
+momentary astonishing fury.
+
+"By God--" he began, and checked himself with difficulty.
+
+She smiled at him slowly.
+
+"Perhaps I didn't mean all of that," she said; "perhaps only half of
+it," she added with significance. "My personal opinion is that you are
+likely to be a curly haired little devil; and when you look at me like
+that, I'm glad we're not alone."
+
+She looked at him an enigmatic moment, then turned away from the table
+near which they had been standing. "Come, help me break up some of this
+'twosing,'" she said.
+
+Shortly after this the party dispersed. Mrs. Morrell said good-bye to
+them carelessly, or not at all, according as it happened.
+
+"You must come again, come often," she told the Keiths. "It's pretty
+dull unless you make your own fun." She was half sleepily conventional,
+her lids heavy. "Perhaps we can have some music soon," she added. The
+words were careless, but she shot Keith an especial gleam.
+
+The Keiths walked sociably home together, almost in silence. Keith,
+after his habit, super-excited with all the fun, the row, and the
+half-guilty boyish feeling of having done a little something he ought
+not to have done, did not want to seem too enthusiastic.
+
+"Jolly crowd," he remarked.
+
+"They were certainly noisy enough," said Nan indifferently; then after
+a moment, "Where _do_ you suppose some of them get their clothes?"
+
+Keith's mind was full of the excitement of the evening. He found
+himself reviewing the company, appraising it, wondering about it. Was
+Teeny McFarlane as gay as she appeared? He had never seen women smoke
+before; but that dark girl with the red thing in her hair puffed a
+cigarette. Perhaps she was Spanish--he had not met her. And Mrs.
+Morrell--hanged if he quite dared make her out--it wouldn't do to jump
+to conclusions nor too hastily to apply Eastern standards; this was a
+new country, fatal to make a fool mistake; well-built creature, by gad--
+
+Nan interrupted his thoughts. He came to with a start.
+
+"I think we'd better put the big armchair in the front room, after
+all," she was saying.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Next morning Keith allayed what little uneasiness his conscience might
+harbour by remarking, as he adjusted his collar:
+
+"Mrs. Morrell is an amusing type, don't you think? She's a bit vulgar,
+but she seems good hearted. Wonder what colour her hair used to be?"
+
+"I suppose they are all right," said Nan. "They are a little rowdy.
+They gave me a headache."
+
+Illogically rehabilitated in his own self-esteem, Keith went on
+dressing. He was "on" to Mrs. Morrell; her methods were pretty obvious.
+Wonder if she thought she had really fooled him? Next time he would be
+on guard and beat her at her own game. She was not a woman to his
+taste, anyway--he glanced admiringly at Nan's clean profile against the
+light--but she was full of vitality, she was keen, she was brimming
+with the joy of life.
+
+The long drive over the Peninsula to the sea and back, the episode of
+the Spanish people, the rowdy supper party, had one effect, however: it
+had made so decided a break in the routine that Keith found himself
+thrust quite outside it. He had worked feverishly all the week, at
+about double speed; and in ordinary course would have gone on working
+feverishly at double speed for another week. Now, suddenly, the thought
+was irksome. He did not analyze this; but, characteristically,
+discovered an irrefutable reason for not going on with it. They rescued
+Gringo from Sam's care, and drove up to the house. On the way Keith
+said:
+
+"Look here, Nan; do you suppose you and Wing can get on all right this
+morning? All the heavy work is done. I really ought to be settling the
+office and getting some lines laid for business."
+
+"Why, of course we can get on, silly!" she rejoined. "This isn't your
+job, anyway. Of course you ought to attend to your business."
+
+Keith again consulted Palmer, Cook & Co. The same clerk showed him
+offices. He was appalled at the rents. Even a miserable little back
+room in the obscurer blocks commanded a sum higher than he had
+anticipated paying. After looking at a dozen, he finally decided on a
+front room in the Merchants' Exchange Building. This was one of the
+most expensive, but Keith was tired of looking. The best is the
+greatest economy in the long run, he told himself, and with a lawyer,
+new-come, appearances count for much in getting clients. Must get the
+clients, though, to support this sort of thing! The rest of the morning
+he spent buying furniture.
+
+About noon he walked back to the Bella Union. His horse and buggy were
+not hitched to the rail, so he concluded Nan had not yet returned for
+lunch. Mrs. Sherwood, however, was seated in a rocker at the sunny end
+of the long veranda. She looked most attractive, her small smooth head
+bent over some sort of fancywork. Before she looked up Keith had
+leisure to note the poise of her head and shoulders, the fine long
+lines of her figure, and the arched-browed serenity of her eyes.
+Different type this from the full-breasted Morrell, more--more
+patrician! Rather absurd in view of their respective places in society,
+but a fact. Keith found himself swiftly speculating on Mrs. Sherwood's
+origin and experience. She was endowed with a new glamour because of
+Mrs. Morrell's enigmatic remark the evening before, and also--for Keith
+was very human--with a new attraction. Feeling vaguely and boyishly
+devilish, Keith stopped.
+
+She nodded at him, laying her work aside.
+
+"You are practically invisible." she told him.
+
+"Making ourselves a habitation. Seen Mrs. Keith?"
+
+"No. I don't think she's come in."
+
+Keith hesitated, then:
+
+"I think I'll go up to the house for her."
+
+Mrs. Sherwood nodded, and resumed her work calmly, without further
+remark.
+
+At the house Keith found Nan, her apron on, her hair done up under a
+dust cap, very busy.
+
+"Noon?" she cried, astonished. "It can't be! But I can't stop now. I
+think I'll have Wing pick me up a lunch. There's plenty in the house.
+It's too much bother to clean up."
+
+Keith demurred; then wanted to stay for the pick-up lunch himself. Nan
+would have none of it. She was full of repressed enthusiasm and
+eagerness, but she wanted to get rid of him.
+
+"There's not enough. I wouldn't have you around. Go away, that's a good
+boy! If you'll leave Wing and me entirely alone we'll be ready to move
+in to-morrow."
+
+"Where's Gringo?" asked Keith by way of indirect yielding--he had
+really no desire for a picked-up lunch.
+
+"The little rascal! He started to chew everything in the place, so I
+tied him in the backyard. He pulls and flops dreadfully. Do you think
+he'll strangle himself?"
+
+Keith looked out the window. Gringo, all four feet planted, was
+determinedly straining back against his tether. The collar had pulled
+forward all the loose skin of his neck, so that his eyes and features
+were lost in wrinkles.
+
+"He doesn't yap," volunteered Nan.
+
+Keith gave it as his opinion that Gringo would stop short of suicide,
+commended Gringo's taciturnity and evident perseverance, and departed
+for the hotel. In the dining-room he saw Mrs. Sherwood in a riding
+habit, eating alone. Keith hesitated, then took the vacant seat
+opposite. She accorded this permission cordially, but without coquetry,
+remarking that Sherwood often did not get in at noon. Immediately she
+turned the conversation to Keith's affairs, inquiring in detail as to
+how the settling was getting on, when they expected to get in, how they
+liked the house, whether they had bought all the furniture.
+
+"You remember I directed you to the auctions?" she said.
+
+She asked all these questions directly, as a man would, and listened to
+his replies.
+
+"I suppose you have an office picked out?" she surmised.
+
+At his mention of the Merchants' Exchange Building she raised her
+arched eyebrows half humorously.
+
+"You picked out an expensive place."
+
+Keith went over his reasoning, to which she listened with a half smile.
+
+"You may be right," she commented; "the reasoning is perfectly sound.
+But that means you must get the business in order to make it pay. What
+are your plans?"
+
+He confessed that as yet they were rather vague; there had not been
+time to do much--too busy settling.
+
+"The usual thing, I suppose," he added: "get acquainted, hang out a
+shingle, mix with people, sit down and starve in the traditional manner
+of young lawyers."
+
+He laughed lightly, but she refused to joke.
+
+"There are a good many lawyers here--and most of them poor ones," she
+told him. "The difficulty is to stand out above the ruck, to become
+noticed. You must get to know all classes, of course; but especially
+those of your own profession, men on the bench. Yes, especially men on
+the bench, they may help you more than any others--"
+
+He seemed to catch a little cynicism in her implied meaning, and
+experienced a sense of shock on his professional side.
+
+"You don't mean that judges are--"
+
+"Susceptible to influence?" She finished the sentence for him with an
+amused little laugh. She studied him for an instant with new interest,
+"They're human--more human here than anywhere else--like the rest of
+us--they respond to kind treatment--" She laughed again, but at the
+sight of his face her own became grave. She checked herself.
+"Everything is so new out here. In older countries the precedents have
+all been established. Out here there are practically none. They are
+being made now, every day, by the present judges. Naturally personal
+influence might get a hearing for one point of view or the other--"
+
+"I see what you mean," he agreed, his face clearing.
+
+"Join a good fire company," she advised him. "That is the first thing
+to do. Each company represents something different, a different class
+of men."
+
+"Which would you advise?" asked Keith seriously.
+
+"That is a matter for your own judgment. Only, investigate well. Meet
+all the people you can. Know the newspaper men, and the big merchants.
+In your profession you must cultivate men like Terry, Girvin, Shattuck,
+Gwin. Keep your eyes open. Be bold and use your wits. Above all, make
+friends; that's it, _make friends_--everybody, everywhere. Don't
+despise anybody. You will get plenty of chances." She was sitting
+erect, and her eyes were flashing. Her usual slow indolent grace had
+fallen from her; she radiated energy. Her slender figure took on a new
+appearance of knit strength. "Such chances! My heavens! if I were a
+man!"
+
+"You'd make a bully man!" cried Keith. Mrs. Morrell, uttering the same
+wish, had received from him a different reply, but he had forgotten
+that.
+
+She laughed again, the tension broke, and she sank back into her usual
+relaxed poise.
+
+"But, thank heavens, I'm not," said she.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+Affairs for the Keiths passed through another week of what might be
+called the transition stage. It took them that long to settle down in
+their new house and into some semblance of a routine--two days to the
+actual installation, and the evenings full of small matters to arrange.
+Nan was busy all day long playing with her new toy. The housekeeping
+was fascinating, and Wing Sam a mixture of delight and despair. Like
+most women who have led the sheltered life, she had not realized as yet
+that the customs of her own fraction of one per cent, were not
+immutable. Therefore, she tried to model the household exactly in the
+pattern of those to which she had been accustomed. Wing Sam blandly
+refused to be moulded.
+
+Thus Nan spent all one morning drilling him in the proper etiquette of
+answering doors. Mindful of John McGlynn's advice, she did this by
+precept, ringing her own door bell, presenting a card as though calling
+on herself. Wing Sam's placid exterior changed not. A half hour later
+the door bell rang, but no Wing Sam appeared to answer it. It rang
+again, and again, until Nan herself opened the door. On the doorstep
+stood Wing Sam himself.
+
+"I foolee you, too," he announced with huge delight.
+
+Painstakingly Nan conveyed to him that this was neither an amusing game
+nor a practical joke. Later in the day the door bell rang again. Nan,
+hovering near to gauge the result of her training, saw Wing Sam plant
+himself firmly in the opening.
+
+"You got ticket?" he demanded sternly of the deliveryman outside. "You
+no got ticket, you no get in!"
+
+Which, Nan rather hysterically gathered, was what Wing Sam had gained
+of the calling-card idea. After that, temporarily as she thought, Nan
+permitted him to go back to his own method, which, had she known it,
+was the method of every Chinese servant in California. The visitor
+found his bell answered by a blandly smiling Wing Sam, who cheerfully
+remarked: "Hullo!" It was friendly, and it didn't matter; but at that
+stage of her development Nan was more or less scandalized.
+
+Nan's sense of humour always came to her assistance by evening, and she
+had many amusing anecdotes to tell Keith, over which both of them
+laughed merrily. Gringo added somewhat to the complications in life. He
+was a fat, roly-poly, soft-boned, ingratiating puppy, with a tail that
+waved energetically but uncontrolledly. Gringo at times was very
+naughty, and very much in the way. But when exasperation turned to
+vengeance he had a way of keeling over on his back, spreading his hind
+legs apart in a manner to expose his stomach freely to brutal assault,
+and casting one calm china-blue eye upward.
+
+"Can there anywhere exist any one so hard-hearted as to injure a poor,
+absolutely defenceless dog?" he inquired, with full confidence in the
+answer.
+
+The iniquities of Gringo and the eccentricities of Wing Sam Nan
+detailed at length, and also her experiences with the natives. She as
+yet looked on every one as natives. Only later could she expand to the
+point of including them in her cosmos of people. Nan was transplanted,
+and her roots had not yet struck down into the soil. In her shopping
+peregrinations she was making casual acquaintance, and she had not yet
+become accustomed to it.
+
+"I bought some darling little casseroles at Phelan's to-day," she said.
+"The whole Phelan family waited on me. Where do you suppose the women
+get their perfectly awful clothes? Mrs. Phelan offered to take me to
+her milliner!" or "You know Wilkins--the furniture man where we got the
+big armchair? I was in there to-day, and he apologized because his wife
+hadn't called!"
+
+They went to bed early, because they were both very tired.
+
+Keith also had generally passed an interesting day. Immediately after
+breakfast he went to his office, and conscientiously sat a while.
+Sometimes he wrote letters or cast up accounts; but there could not be
+much of this to do. About ten or eleven o'clock his impatient
+temperament had had enough of this, so he drifted over to the
+Monumental engine house. After considerable thought he had decided to
+join this company. It represented about the class of men with whom he
+wanted to affiliate himself--the influential men of the lawyer,
+Southern-politician, large business men type. There were many of these
+volunteer organizations. Their main purpose was to fight fire; but they
+subserved other objects as well--political, social, and financial.
+David Broderick, for example, already hated and feared, partly owned
+and financed a company of ward-heelers who were introducing and
+establishing the Tammany type of spoils politics. Casey, later in
+serious trouble, practically manipulated another.
+
+Among the Monumentals, Keith delighted especially in Bert Taylor. Bert
+Taylor likewise delighted in Keith. The little chubby man's enthusiasm
+for the company, while recognized as most valuable to the company's
+welfare, had ended by boring most of the company's members. But Keith
+was a new listener and avid for information. He had had no notion of
+how complicated the whole matter could be. Bert Taylor dissertated
+sometimes on one phase of the subject, sometimes on another.
+
+"It's drills we need, and the fellows won't drill enough!" was Bert
+Taylor's constant complaint. "What do they know about hose? They run it
+out any way it comes; and roll it up anyhow, instead of doing a proper
+job."
+
+"How should you do it?" asked Keith.
+
+"It ought to be laid right--so there's no bends or sharp angles in it;
+it should never be laid over heaps of stones, or any kind of uneven
+surface--it all increases the water resistance. If there are any bends
+or curves they should be regular and even. The hose ought never to rest
+against a sharp edge or angle. And when you coil it up you ought to
+reverse the sides every time, so it will wear even and stretch even. Do
+they do it? Not unless I stand over them with a club!"
+
+He showed Keith the hose, made of India rubber, a comparatively new
+thing, for heretofore hose had been made of riveted leather. Bert
+Taylor made him feel the inside of this hose with his forefinger to
+test its superlative smoothness.
+
+"Mighty little resistance there!" he cried triumphantly.
+
+The nozzles, all in racks, he handled with almost reverent care.
+
+"These are the boys that cost the money," said Taylor. "If the inside
+isn't polished like a mirror the water doesn't come smooth. And the
+least little dent makes the stream ragged and broken. Nothing looks
+worse--and it isn't as effective on the fire. It ought to be thrown
+like a solid rod of water. I can't get the boys to realize that the
+slightest bruise, dent, or burr throws the stream in a ragged feathery
+foam. The result of that is that a lot of water is dissipated and lost."
+
+Keith, who had taken hold of the nozzle rather negligently, returned it
+with the reverent care due crown jewels.
+
+"How long a stream will it throw?" he asked.
+
+"With thirty men on a side she's done a hundred and twelve feet high,
+and two hundred and eighteen for distance," said Bert with simple pride.
+
+He picked up the nozzle again.
+
+"See here. Here's an invention of my own. Cost money to put it in, too,
+because every other nozzle on earth is made wrong."
+
+He explained that other nozzles are made so that the thread of the hose
+screwed into the nozzle; while in his, the thread of the nozzle screwed
+into the hose.
+
+"If there's a leak or a bad connection," explained Bert, "with the old
+type, the water is blown back into the fireman's face, and he is
+blinded. His whole efficiency depends on a close joint. But with my
+scheme the leak is blown forward, away from the lineman. It's a
+perfectly sound scheme, but I can't make them see it."
+
+"Sounds reasonable," observed Keith, examining perfunctorily a device
+to which later he was to owe his life.
+
+Item by item they went over the details of equipment--the scaling
+ladders, the jumping sheets, the branch pipes, the suction pipes, the
+flat roses, standcocks, goose necks, the dogtails, dam boards, shovels,
+saws, poleaxes, hooks, and ropes. From a consideration of them the two
+branched off to the generalities of fire fighting. Keith learned that
+the combating of a fire, the driving it into a corner, outflanking it,
+was a fine art.
+
+"I say always, _get in close_," said Taylor. "A fire can be _put_ out
+as well as just drowned out."
+
+It struck Keith as interesting that in a room a stream should always be
+directed at the top of a fire, so that the water running down helps
+extinguish the flames below, whereas in attack at the bottom or centre
+merely puts out the immediate blaze, leaving the rest to spread upward
+or sideways. Taylor put himself on record against fighting fire from
+the street.
+
+"Don't want a whole lot of water and row," he maintained. "Get in close
+quarters and make every drop count."
+
+When Bert's enthusiasm palled, Keith always found men in the
+reading-room. The engine house was a sort of clearing house for
+politics, business schemes, personal affairs, or differences.
+
+Once a day, also, as part of his job in his profession, Keith went to
+the courthouse. There he sat in the enclosure reserved for lawyers and
+listened to the proceedings, his legal mind alert and interested in the
+technical battles. At no time in the world's history has sheer
+technicality unleavened by common sense been carried further than in
+the early California courts. Even in the most law-ridden times
+elsewhere a certain check has been exercised by public opinion or the
+presence of business interests. But here was as yet no public opinion;
+and business interests, their energies fully taxed by the necessities
+of a new country, were willing to pay heavily to be let alone.
+Consequently, lawyers were permitted to play out their fascinating game
+to their hearts' content, and totally without reference to expedience
+or to the justice of the case. The battles were indeed intensely
+technical and shadowy. Points within points were fought bitterly. Often
+for days the real case at issue was forgotten.
+
+Only one of the more obvious instances of technical triumph need be
+cited. One man killed another, on a public street, before many
+witnesses. The indictment was, however, thrown out and he released
+because it stated only that the victim was killed by a pistol, and
+failed to specify that his death was due to the discharge of said
+pistol. The lawyer who evolved this brilliant idea was greatly admired
+and warmly congratulated.
+
+The wheels of the law ground very slowly. One of the simplest and most
+effective expedients of defence was delay. A case could be postponed
+and remanded, often until the witnesses were scattered or influenced.
+But there were infinite numbers of legal expedients, all most
+interesting to a man of Keith's profession. His sense of justice was
+naturally strong and warm, and an appeal to it outside a courtroom or a
+law office always got an immediate and commonsense response. But inside
+the law his mind automatically closed, and a "case" could have only
+legal aspects. Which is true of the majority of lawyers to-day.
+
+On the adjournment of court Keith generally drifted over to the El
+Dorado or the Empire, where he spent an hour or so loafing with some of
+his numerous acquaintances. He was of the temperament that makes itself
+quickly popular, the laughing, hearty sort, full of badinage, and
+genuinely liking most men with whom he came in contact. There was
+always much joking in the air, but back of it was a certain reserve, a
+certain wariness, for every second man was a professed "fire-eater,"
+given to feeling insulted on the slightest grounds, and flying to the
+duel or the street fight instanter.
+
+This hour was always most pleasant to Keith; nevertheless, he went home
+about five o'clock in order to enjoy an hour or so of daylight about
+the place. He performed prodigies of digging in the new garden:
+constructing terraces, flower beds, walks, and the like. While the
+actual construction work was under way he was greatly interested, but
+cared nothing for the finished product or the mere growing of the
+flowers.
+
+Gringo received his share of training, at first to his intense disgust.
+Twice he refused obedience, and the matter being pressed, resorted to
+the simple expedient of retiring from the scene. Keith dropped
+everything and pursued. Gringo crawled under things, but was followed
+even to the dustiest and cob-webbiest farthest corner under the porch;
+he tried swiftness and dodging, but was trailed in all his doublings
+and twistings at top speed; he tried running straight away over the
+sand hills, and at first left his horrible master behind, but the
+horrible master possessed a horrible persistence. Finally he shut his
+eyes and squatted, expecting instant annihilation, but instead was
+haled back to the exact scene of his disobedience, and the command
+repeated. Nan laughed until the tears came, over the large, warm,
+red-faced man after the small, obstinate, scared pup, but Keith refused
+to joke.
+
+"If he finds he can't get away, no matter what happens, I'll never have
+to do it again," he panted. "But if he wins out, even once, it'll be an
+awful job."
+
+Gringo tried twice. Then, his faith in his ability to escape completely
+shattered, he gave up. After that he adored Keith and was always under
+his feet.
+
+Keith saw nothing of any of the women. Mrs. Sherwood seemed to have
+dropped from their ken when they left the hotel. Once Keith inquired
+casually about Mrs. Morrell.
+
+"She's been over twice to see the place," replied Nan.
+
+"We ought to go over there to call," proffered Keith vaguely; but there
+the matter rested.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+One night Keith was awakened by Nan's suddenly sitting up in bed. There
+came to his struggling consciousness the persistent steady clangour of
+many deep bells. Slowly recognition filtered into his mind--the fire
+bells!
+
+He hastily pulled on some clothes and ran down the front stairs,
+stumbling over Gringo, who uttered an outraged yelp. From the street he
+could see a red glow in the sky. At top speed he ran down the street in
+the direction of the Monumental. In the half darkness he could make out
+other figures running. The deep tones of the bells continued to smite
+his ear, but now in addition he heard the tinkling and clinking of
+innumerable smaller bells--those on the machines. He dashed around a
+corner to encounter a double line of men, running at full speed,
+hauling on a long rope attached to an engine. Their mouths were open,
+and they were all yelling. The light engine careened and swayed and
+bumped. Two men clung to the short steering tongue, trying to guide it.
+They were thrown violently from side to side, dragged here and there,
+tripping, hauling, falling across the tongue, but managing to keep the
+machine from dashing off at a tangent. Above them, high and precarious,
+swayed the short stout figure of Bert Taylor. He was in full
+regalia--leather helmet, heavy leather belt, long-tailed coat, and in
+his free hand the chased silver speaking trumpet with the red tassels
+that usually hung on the wall. He was in his glory, dominating the
+horde. His keen eye, roving everywhere, seeing everything, saw Keith.
+
+"Catch hold!" he roared through the trumpet.
+
+Keith made a flying grab at a vacant place on the line, caught it, was
+almost jerked from his feet, recovered himself, and charged on, yelling
+like the rest.
+
+But now Bert Taylor began to shriek something excitedly. It became
+evident, from glimpses caught down the side streets, but especially
+through the many vacant lots, that another engine was paralleling their
+own course a block away.
+
+"Jump her, boys, jump her!" shrieked Bert Taylor. "For God's sake,
+don't let those Eurekas beat you!"
+
+He danced about on top of the waterbox of the engine, in imminent peril
+of being jerked from his place, battering his silver trumpet insanely
+against the brake rods, beseeching, threatening profanely. And
+profanity at that time was a fine art. Men studied its alliteration,
+the gorgeousness of its imagery, the blast of its fire. The art has
+been lost, existing still, in a debased form, only among mule drivers,
+sailors, and the owners of certain makes of automobiles. The men on the
+rope responded nobly. The roar of their going over the plank road was
+like hollow thunder. A man dropped out. Next day it was discovered he
+had broken his leg in a hole. At tremendous speed they charged through
+the ring of spectators, and drew up, proud and panting, victors by a
+hundred feet, to receive the plaudits of the multitude. A handsome man
+on a handsome horse rode up.
+
+"Monumentals on the fire! Eurekas on cistern number twenty!" he
+commanded briefly.
+
+This was Charles Duane, the unpaid fire chief; a likable, efficient
+man, but too fond of the wrong sort of friends.
+
+Now it became evident to Keith why Bert Taylor had urged them so
+strongly in the race. The fire was too distant from the water supply to
+be carried in one length of hose. Therefore, one engine was required to
+relay to another, pumping the water from the cistern, through the hose,
+and into the waterbox of the other engine. The other engine pumped it
+from its own waterbox on to the fire. The latter, of course, was the
+position of honour.
+
+The Eurekas fell back grumbling, and uttering open threats to wash
+their rivals. By this they meant that they would pump water into the
+Monumentals faster than the latter could pump it out, thus overflowing
+and eternally disgracing them. They dropped their suction hose into the
+cistern, and one of their number held the end of the main hose over a
+little trapdoor in the Monumental's box. The crews sprang to the long
+brake handles on either side, and at once the regular _thud, thud,
+thud_ of the pumps took up its rhythm. The hose writhed and swelled;
+the light engines quivered. Bert Taylor and the Eureka foreman, Carter
+by name, walked back and forth as on their quarterdecks, exhorting
+their men. Relays, in uniform assumed on the spot, stood ready at hand.
+Nobody in either crew knew or cared anything whatsoever about the fire.
+As the race became closer, the foremen got more excited, begging their
+crews to increase the stroke, beating their speaking trumpets into
+shapeless battered relics. An astute observer would now have understood
+one reason why the jewellery stores carried such a variety of fancy
+speaking trumpets. They were for presentation by grateful owners after
+the fire had been extinguished, and it was generally necessary to get a
+new one for each fire.
+
+Keith, acting under previous instructions, promptly seized a helmet and
+poleaxe and made his way to the front. The fire had started in one of
+many flimsy wooden buildings, and had rapidly spread to threaten a
+whole district. Men from the hook and ladder companies were already at
+work on some of the hopeless cases. A fireman or two mounted ladders to
+the eaves, dragging with them a heavy hook on the end of a long pole.
+Cutting a small hole with their axes, they hooked on this apparatus and
+descended. As many firemen and volunteers as could get hold of the pole
+and the rope attached to it, now began to pull.
+
+"Yo, heave ho!" they cried.
+
+The timbers cracked, broke, the whole side of the house came out with a
+grand and satisfying crash. An inferno of flame was thereby laid open
+to the streams from the hose lines. It was grand destructive fun for
+everybody, especially for the boys of all ages, which included in
+spirit about every male person present.
+
+This sort of work was intended, of course, to confine or check the fire
+within the area already affected, and could accomplish nothing toward
+saving the structures already alight. The roar of the flames, the
+hissing of firebrands sucked upward, the crash of timbers, the shrieks
+of the foremen through their trumpets, the yells of applause or of
+sarcasm from the crowd, and the _thud, thud, thud, thud_ of numerous
+brake bars made a fine pandemonium. Everybody except the owners or
+tenants of the buildings was delighted.
+
+Keith, with two others, was instructed to carry the Monumental nozzle
+to the roof of a house not afire. Proudly they proceeded to use their
+scaling ladders. These were a series of short sections, each about six
+feet long, the tops slightly narrower than the bottoms. By means of
+slots these could be fitted together. First, Keith erected one of them
+against the wall of the building, at an angle, and ascended it,
+carrying another section across his shoulder. When he reached a certain
+rung, which was painted red, he thrust his foot through the ladder and
+against the wall, pushed the ladder away from the wall, and fitted the
+section he was carrying to the top of the section on which he was
+standing. He then hauled up another section and repeated. When the
+ladder had reached to the eaves, he and his companions dragged the
+squirting, writhing hose up with them, chopped footholds in the roof,
+and lay flat to look over the ridgepole as over a breastwork. All this
+to the tune of admiring plaudits and with a pleasing glow of heroism.
+There was a skylight, but either they overlooked or scorned that
+prosaic expedient.
+
+At the other end of the ridgepole Keith made out the dark forms of two
+men from another company. His own companions, acting under orders, now
+descended the ladder, leaving him alone.
+
+The next building was a raging furnace, and on it Keith directed the
+heavy stream from his nozzle. It was great fun. At first the water
+seemed to have no effect whatever, but after a little it began to win.
+The flames were beaten back, broken into detachments. Finally, Keith
+got to the point of chasing down small individual outbreaks, driving
+them into their lairs, drowning them as they crouched. He was wholly
+interested, and the boy in him, with a shamefaced half apology to the
+man in him, pretended that he was a soldier directing a battery against
+an enemy.
+
+Along the ridgepole cautiously sidled the two men of the other company,
+dragging their hose. Keith now recognized them. One was a vivid,
+debonair, all-confident, magnetic individual named Talbot Ward, a
+merchant, promoter, speculator, whom everybody liked and trusted; the
+other a fair Hercules of a man, slow and powerful in everything, called
+Frank Munro.
+
+"Look here," said Ward, "does it strike you this roof's getting hot?"
+
+Recalled to himself, Keith immediately became aware of the fact.
+
+"The house is afire beneath us," said Ward; "we've got to get out."
+
+"What's the matter with your ladder?" asked Keith.
+
+"They took it away."
+
+"We'll use mine."
+
+They let themselves cautiously down the footholds that had been chopped
+in the roof, and looked over. A blast of smoke and flame met them in
+the face.
+
+"Good Lord, she's all afire!" cried Keith, aghast.
+
+The flames were licking around the scaling ladder, which was already
+blazing. Keith directed the stream from his hose straight down, but
+with no other result than to break the charred ladder.
+
+They crawled back to the ridgepole, and worked their hose lines around
+to the end of the building, out of the flames. Here a two-story drop
+confronted them.
+
+"This thing is going to fall under us if we don't do something,"
+muttered Ward.
+
+"Duane's forgotten us, and those crazy idiots at the engines are too
+busy trying to keep from being washed," surmised Keith.
+
+"Look here," said Munro suddenly; "I'll brace against a chimney and
+hang on to the hose, and you can slide down it like a rope."
+
+"How about you?" demanded Ward crisply.
+
+"You can run for more ladders, once you're on the ground."
+
+At this moment the water failed in Keith's hose. He stared at the
+nozzle, then rapidly began to unscrew it.
+
+"Cistern empty or hose burst," surmised Munro.
+
+But Talbot Ward, cocking his ear toward a distant pandemonium of
+cheering, guessed the true cause.
+
+"Sucked," said he. By this he meant that the Monumental crew had
+succeeded in emptying their water box in spite of the Eureka's best
+efforts.
+
+"Get off your nozzle quick!" urged Keith.
+
+Munro, without stopping to ask why, bent his great strength to the
+task; and it was a task, for in his hose the pressure of the water was
+tremendous. It spurted back all over him, and at the last the nozzle
+was fairly blown away from him.
+
+"Now couple my hose to yours quick, quick, before my hose fills!" cried
+Keith.
+
+"They won't go--" Munro began to object.
+
+"Yes, they will, mine's a special thread," urged Keith, who had
+remembered Bert Taylor's reversed nozzle.
+
+All three bent their energies to catching the threads. It was a fearful
+job, for the strength of the water had first to be overcome. Keith was
+terribly excited. Time was precious, for not only might the roof give
+way beneath them, but at any moment the water might come again in
+Keith's hose. Then it would be physically impossible to make the
+coupling. All three men concentrated their efforts on it, their feet
+gripping the irregularities of the roof or slipping on the shingles.
+Frank Munro bent his enormous back to the task, the veins standing out
+in his temples, his face turning purple with the effort. Keith helped
+him as well as he was able. Talbot Ward, coolly, deliberately,
+delicately, as though he had all the time in the world, manipulated the
+coupling, feeling gingerly for the thread. The water spurted, fanned,
+sprayed, escaping with violence, first at one point, then at another,
+drenching and blinding them.
+
+"There!" breathed Ward at last, and with a few twists, of his sinewy
+hands brought the couplings into close connection. Munro relaxed,
+drawing two or three deep breaths. Without the aid of his great
+strength the task could not have been accomplished.
+
+"Hook her over the chimney," gasped Keith.
+
+With some difficulty they lifted the loop of the throbbing hose over
+the chimney.
+
+"Down we go!" cried Keith, and slid hand over hand down the way thus
+made for them. The others immediately followed, and all three stood
+looking back. It was a wonder the building had stood so long, for in
+both stories it was afire, and the walls had apparently burned quite
+through. Indeed, a moment later the whole structure collapsed. A
+fountain of sparks and brands sprang upward in the mighty suction.
+
+"There goes our good hose!" said Keith.
+
+The remark brought them to wrath and a desire for vengeance.
+
+"I'm going to lick somebody!" cried Keith, starting determinedly in the
+direction of the engine.
+
+"We'll help," growled Munro.
+
+But when they came in sight of the engine their anger evaporated, and
+they clung to each other, weak with mirth.
+
+For the Monumental was "washed," and washed aplenty. This was natural,
+for now the water was pouring into her box from _both_ directions, and
+would continue so to pour until the hose coupled to Ward's engine had
+burned through. The water was fairly spouting up from the box, not
+merely overflowing. Her crew were still working, but raggedly and
+dispiritedly. Bert Taylor, his trumpet battered beyond all recognition,
+was fairly voiceless with rage. An interested and ribaldry facetious
+crowd spared not its sarcasm.
+
+"My crowd must be in the same fix!" gurgled Ward; "the back pressure
+has 'washed' them, too." Then the full splendour of the situation burst
+on him, and he fell again on Munro for support.
+
+"Don't you see," he gasped. "They'll never know! The hose will burn
+through. Unless we tell, they'll never know! We've got even, all right."
+
+At this moment Duane rode up, foaming at the mouth, and desiring to
+know what the assorted adjectives they were doing there. The crews
+awoke to their isolation and general uselessness. Bert Taylor, still
+simmering, descended from his perch. They followed the hose lines to
+glowing coals!
+
+"Here, this won't do," said Talbot; so they reported themselves before
+the news of a tragedy had had time to spread.
+
+The fire was now practically under control. It had swept a city block
+pretty clean, but had been confined to that area. An hour later they
+dragged their engine rather dispiritedly back to the house. Ordinarily
+they would have been in high spirits. Fires were to these men a good
+deal of a lark. The crews were very effective and well drilled, and the
+saving of property was as well done as possible, but that was all
+secondary to the game of it. But to-night they had been "washed," they
+had lost the game, and the fact that they had put out the fire cut very
+little figure. There was much bickering. It seemed that Bert Taylor, in
+his enthusiasm, had, out of his own pocket, hired extra men who
+appeared at the critical moment to relieve the tired men at the brakes;
+and it was under their fresh impetus that the Monumental had so
+triumphantly "sucked." Now Bert Taylor was freely blamed. The regular
+men stoutly maintained that if they had been left alone this would
+never have happened.
+
+"These whiskey bummers never can last!" they said. Everybody trooped
+upstairs to the main rooms, where refreshments were served. After some
+consideration Keith decided to tell his story in explanation of how it
+was that the Monumentals were washed. Instantly the company cheered up,
+A clamour broke out. This was great! With Talbot Ward and Munro to
+corroborate, no one could doubt the story. Taylor ran about jubilantly,
+returning every few moments to pat Keith on the shoulder.
+
+"Fine! fine!" he cried. "We've got those _Eurekas_! I can't wait for
+morning!"
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+Keith got home about daylight to find Nan, terribly anxious, waiting up
+for him. He brushed away her anxiety with the usual masculine
+impatience at being made a fuss over, gave a brief account of the
+fire--omitting mention of his narrow escape--and insisted that she go
+to bed. After a few moments she obeyed, and immediately fell asleep.
+Keith bathed himself and changed, made a cup of coffee, and wandered
+about rather impatiently waiting for time to go downtown. Wing Sam
+appeared, the morning paper came. The sun gained strength, and finally
+tempted him outside.
+
+For some time he prowled around, examining Nan's efforts at gardening.
+There was not much to show as yet, but Keith had already the eye of
+faith so essential to the Californian, and saw plainly trees, shrubs,
+and flowers where now only spears of green were visible. The Morrells'
+garden next door was already well grown, and he cast on it an
+appraising eye. No sign of life showed about the place except a thread
+of smoke from the kitchen chimney. It was still early.
+
+Nevertheless, five minutes later Mrs. Morrell opened the side door and
+stepped forth. She had on a wide leghorn hat, and carried a basket and
+scissors as though to gather flowers. Immediately she caught sight of
+Keith and waved him a gay greeting. He vaulted the fence and joined her.
+
+"Aren't these early morning hours perfect? Isn't this glorious
+sunshine?" she greeted him.
+
+As a matter of fact Mrs. Morrell seldom rose before noon, and detested
+early morning hours and glorious sunshine. She was inclined to consider
+the usual remarks in their praise as sheer affectation. But she adored
+fires, and often went to them when they promised well enough. Sometimes
+she attended in company with certain of her men friends; and sometimes
+alone, cloaked as a man. She liked the destruction and stimulation of
+them. She had been to the fire just extinguished, and seeing Keith in
+the garden, had put on her fluffiest and gone out to him. It was time
+this most attractive young man next door paid her more attention.
+
+"How does the hero of the fire survive?" she asked him archly.
+
+"Hero?"
+
+"Don't pretend ignorance. Charles told me all about it. He heard your
+tale at the Monumental."
+
+"It's hardly heroism to get out of a scrape the best way possible."
+
+"It's heroic to save lives, I think; but especially heroic to keep your
+head in an emergency."
+
+"Mr. Morrell all right?" asked Keith, to change the subject.
+
+"He is sleeping off the fire--and the after effects. You men need
+watching every minute--even when we think you must be in danger of your
+lives."
+
+She laughed and clipped a few flowers at random.
+
+"Have you been moving furniture all these days? We've seen nothing of
+you. I thought we were going to have some music. I do my little
+five-finger exercises all by myself and nobody knows but I am playing
+Beethoven. You ought in Christian charity to help me out--whether you
+want to or not. What do you think of our garden? Don't you adore
+flowers?"
+
+"No, I don't believe I do," replied Keith bluntly. "I like to see a
+pretty woman amongst 'em," he went on gallantly, "they set her off.
+It's like dresses. No good to show me pretty frocks--unless they're
+filled."
+
+"La! You are so clever; at times I'm really afraid of you," said she.
+
+She went on tossing a few blooms into her basket. Under the stimulus of
+the fire she had acted on impulse in going out into the garden. She
+realized it as perhaps a mistake. Keith's early morning freshness and
+fitness made her feel less sure of herself than usual. She had an
+uneasy impression that she was not at her best, and this reacted on her
+ability to exercise her usual magnetism. In fact, Keith, the least
+observant of men in such things, could not avoid noticing her rather
+second-hand looking skin, and that her features were more pronounced
+than he had thought.
+
+"Do come over this evening for some music," she begged. "You can take a
+nap this afternoon, and you can go home early."
+
+Keith had been just a little uneasy over this second interview with
+Mrs. Morrell. His straightforward nature was inclined to look back on
+the impression she had made on him at the supper party with a
+half-guilty sense of some sort of vague disloyalty he could not
+formulate. Now he felt much satisfied with himself, and quite relieved.
+Therefore, he accepted.
+
+"I shall be very glad to," said he.
+
+At breakfast, which was rather late, he told Nan of the meeting and the
+invitation. Nan's clear lines, fresh creamy skin, bright young eyes,
+looked more than usually attractive to him.
+
+"Perhaps she _can_ play," he said. "Let's go find out. And you must
+wear your prettiest gown; I'm proud of my wife, and I want her to look
+her very best."
+
+A little later he remarked:
+
+"I wonder if she isn't considerably older than Morrell."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+When he had at last reached downtown after his late breakfast, Keith
+found it in a fair turmoil. Knots of men stood everywhere arguing,
+sometimes very heatedly. Eureka members were openly expressing their
+anger over what they called Taylor's "dirty trick" in putting hirelings
+on the brakes, men who did not belong to the Monumental organization at
+all. If it had not been for that the Monumentals could never have
+"sucked" at all. On the other hand, the Monumentals and their friends
+were vehemently asserting that they were well within their rights.
+Fists were brandished. Several fights started, but were stopped before
+they had become serious.
+
+Keith avoided these storm centres, waving a friendly hand, but
+smilingly refusing to be drawn in. Near the Merchants' Exchange,
+however, he came on a quieter, attentive group, in the centre of which
+stood Calhoun Bennett. The Southerner's head was thrown back haughtily,
+but he was listening with entire courtesy to a violent harangue from a
+burly, red-faced man in rough clothes.
+
+"And I tell you that sort of a trick won't go down with nobody, and the
+story of why you were washed won't wash itself. It's too thin."
+
+"I have the honah, suh," said Bennett formally, "to info'm yo' that yo'
+do not know what yo' are talkin' about."
+
+His silken tones apparently enraged the man.
+
+"You silk-stockinged----of a----!" said he.
+
+Without haste Calhoun Bennett rapped the man across the face with his
+light rattan cane. Venting a howl of rage, the Eureka partisan leaped
+forward. Calhoun Bennett, quick as a flash, drew a small derringer and
+fired; and the man went down in a heap. Superbly nonchalant, Bennett,
+without a glance at his victim, turned away, the ring of spectators
+parting to let him through. He saw Keith, and at once joined him,
+drawing the young man's arm through his own. Keith, looking back, saw
+the man already sitting up, feeling his shoulder and cursing vigorously.
+
+Bennett was fairly radiating rage, which, however, he managed to
+suppress beneath a well-bred exterior calm.
+
+"These hounds, suh," he told Keith, "profess not to believe us, suh!
+They profess, suh, that our explanation of how we were washed is a
+fabrication. You will oblige me, suh, by profferin' yo' personal
+testimony in the case."
+
+He faced Keith resolutely toward the Eureka engine house. Keith spared
+a thought to wonder what he was being let in for by this handsome young
+fire-eater, but he went along unprotesting.
+
+Around the Eureka engine house was a big crowd of men. These fell
+silent as Bennett and Keith approached. The Eurekas represented quite a
+different social order from the Monumentals. Its membership was
+recruited from those who in the East had been small farmers, artisans,
+or workingmen in the more skilled trades; independent, plain, rather
+rough, thoroughly democratic, a trifle contemptuous of "silk
+stockings," outspoken, with little heed for niceties of etiquette or
+conduct. Bennett pushed his way through them to where stood Carter, the
+chief, and several of the more influential. Keith, looking at them, met
+their eyes directed squarely into his. They were steady, clear-looking,
+solid, rather coarse-grained, grave men.
+
+"I have brought Mr. Keith here, who was an eyewitness, to give his
+testimony as to the events of last evenin'," said Bennett formally.
+
+Keith told his story. It was received in a blank noncommittal silence.
+The men all looked at him steadily, and said nothing. Somehow, he was
+impressed. This silence seemed to him, fancifully, more than mere lack
+of words--it conveyed a sense of reserve force, of quiet appraisal of
+himself and his words, of the experiences of men who have been close to
+realities, who have _done_ things in the world. Keith felt himself to
+be better educated, to own a better brain, to have a wider outlook, to
+be possessed, in short, of all the advantages of superiority. He had
+never mingled with rough men, and he had always looked down on them. In
+this attitude was no condescension and no priggishness, Now he felt,
+somehow, that the best of these men had something that he had not
+suspected, some force of character that raised them above his previous
+conception. They might be more than mere "filling" in a city's
+population; they might well come to be an element to be reckoned with.
+
+When he had quite finished his story, there ensued a slight pause. Then
+said Carter:
+
+"We believe Mr. Keith. If Mr. Ward and Frank Munro were there, of
+course there can be no doubt." Somehow Keith could not resent the
+implication; it was too impersonally delivered. Carter went on with
+cold formality and emphasis; "Mr. Keith had a very narrow escape. It
+was lucky for him that your hired men had 'sucked' your waterbox. In
+view of that we can, of course, no longer regret the fact."
+
+"It was a dirty trick just the same!" growled a voice out of the crowd.
+
+Carter turned a deliberate look in that direction, and nothing more was
+said. Bennett ignored the interruption, bowed frigidly, and turned
+away. The Eureka leaders nodded. In dead silence Keith and Bennett
+withdrew.
+
+"That settles _that_!" observed Bennett, when at a little distance. "A
+lot of cheap shopkeepers! It makes me disgusted every time I have
+anythin' to do with them!"
+
+As they walked away, one of the hangers-on of the police court
+approached, touching his hat.
+
+"For you, Mr. Bennett," he said most respectfully, proffering a paper.
+
+"Me?" observed Bennett, surprised. He unfolded the paper, glanced at
+it, and laughed. "I'm arrested for wingin' that 'shoulder-striker' up
+the street a while back," he told Keith.
+
+"Anything I can do?" asked Keith anxiously.
+
+"Not a thing, thank you. There'll be no trouble at all--just a little
+nuisance. May call you for a witness later."
+
+He went away with the officer, but shortly after Keith saw him on the
+street again. The matter had been easily arranged.
+
+Keith went to his office. In spite of himself he could not entirely
+take Bennett's point of view. Several of the men at Eureka headquarters
+looked interesting--he would like to know them--perhaps more than
+interesting, the potentiality of a reasoning and directed power.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+The afternoon nap suggested by Mrs. Morrell was not enjoyed, and Keith
+returned home feeling pretty tired and inclined to a quiet evening. Nan
+had to remind him of his engagement.
+
+"Oh, let's send a note over by Wing," he said, a little crossly. "I
+don't feel like making an effort to-night."
+
+But Nan's convention could not approve of anything quite so radically a
+last-minute decision.
+
+"It's a little late in the day for that," she pointed out. "She may
+have stayed in just to see us. We can leave early."
+
+Keith went, grumbling. They found Mrs. Morrell in full evening dress,
+showing her neck and shoulders, which were her best points, for she was
+full bosomed and rounded without losing firmness of flesh. Nan was a
+trifle taken back at this gorgeousness, for she had not dressed. Keith,
+with his usual directness, made no secret of pretending to be utterly
+overwhelmed.
+
+"I didn't know we were expected to dress for a real concert with
+flowers!" he cried, laughing.
+
+Mrs. Morrell shrugged her fine shoulders indifferently.
+
+"This old rag!" she said. "Don't let that bother you. I always like to
+put on something cool for the evening. It's such a relief."
+
+It developed that Morrell had an engagement, and could not stay.
+
+"He was so disappointed," purred Mrs. Morrell.
+
+She was all eager for the music, brushing aside this and other
+preliminaries.
+
+"You play, sing?" she asked Nan. "What a pity! I'm afraid you're going
+to be terribly bored."
+
+She turned instantly to Keith, hurrying him to the piano, giving the
+impression of being too eager to wait--almost the eagerness of a
+drunkard in the presence of drink. And this in turn conveyed a
+vibrating feeling of magnetism, of temperament under restraint, of
+possibilities veiled. The impact struck Keith's responsive nature full.
+He waked up, approached the piano with reviving interest. She struck
+idle chords and flashed at him over her shoulder a brilliant smile.
+
+"What shall it be?" she demanded, still with the undercurrent of
+eagerness. "You choose--a man's song--something soulful. I'm just in
+the mood."
+
+"Do you know the 'Bedouin Love Song?'" he inquired.
+
+"The 'Bedouin Love Song?' No--I'm afraid not. We are so far out of the
+world."
+
+"It's a new thing. It goes like this."
+
+He hummed the air, and she followed it hesitatingly, feeling out the
+accompaniment. Mrs. Morrell knew her instrument and had a quick ear.
+Occasionally Keith leaned over her shoulder to strike for her an
+elusive chord or modulation. In so doing he had to press close, and for
+all his honest absorption in the matter at hand, could not help
+becoming aware of her subtle perfume, the shine of her flesh, and the
+brightness of her crown of hair.
+
+"You play it," she said suddenly.
+
+But he disclaimed the ability.
+
+"I don't know it any better than you do, and you improvise wonderfully."
+
+They became entirely absorbed in this most fascinating of tasks, the
+working out little by little of a complicated accompaniment.
+
+"There!" she cried gayly at last. "I believe I have it. Let's try."
+
+Keith had a strong smooth baritone, not too well trained, but free from
+glaring faults and mannerisms. It filled the little drawing-room
+ringingly. He liked the song, and he sang it with fire and a certain
+defiance that suited it. At its conclusion Mrs. Morrell sprang to her
+feet, breathing quickly, her usual hard, quick artificiality of manner
+quite melted.
+
+"It's wonderful!" she cried. "It lifts one right up! It makes me feel
+I'd run away----" She checked herself abruptly, and turned to where Nan
+sat in an armchair outside the circle of light, "Don't you just _adore_
+it?" she asked in a more restrained manner, and turned back to Keith,
+who was standing a little flushed and excited by the song, "You have
+just the voice for it--with that vibrating deep quality." She reseated
+herself at the piano and struck several loud chords. Under cover of
+them she added, half under her breath, as though to herself, but
+distinctly audible to the man at her shoulder; "Luck for us all that
+you are already taken."
+
+Keith would have been no more than human if he had not followed this
+cue with a look. She did not lower her eyes, but gave him back his gaze
+directly. It was as though some secret understanding sprang up between
+them, though Keith,--in half-angry confusion, could not have analyzed
+it.
+
+After this they compared notes until they found several songs they both
+knew. Mrs. Morrell brushed aside Keith's suggestion that she herself
+should sing, but she did it in a way that left the implication that he
+was the important one vocally.
+
+"No, no! I've been starved too long. I'm as tired of my little reed of
+a voice as of the tinkle of a musical box."
+
+The close of the evening was brought about only by the return of
+Morrell from his engagement. Keith had utterly forgotten his fatigue,
+and was tingling with the enthusiasm to which his nature always rose
+under stimulus. The Englishman, very self-contained, clean-cut,
+incisive, brought a new atmosphere. He was cordial and polite, but not
+expansive. Keith came down from the clouds. He remembered, with
+compunction, Nan sitting in the armchair, the lateness of the hour, his
+own fatigue.
+
+"You should hear Mr. Keith's new song, Charley," said Mrs. Morrell.
+"It's the most wonderful thing! The 'Bedouin Love Song,' You must
+surely sing it at the Firemen's Ball. It will make a great hit. No, you
+surely must. With a voice like yours it is selfish not to use it for
+the benefit of all. Don't you agree with me, Mrs. Keith?"
+
+"I'll sing it, if you will play my accompaniment," said Keith.
+
+On their way home Keith's enthusiasm bubbled up again.
+
+"Isn't it great luck to find somebody to practise with?" he
+cried--"Unexpected luck in a place like this! I wish you cared for
+music."
+
+"Oh, I do," said Nan. "I love it. But I just can't do it, that's all."
+
+"Did you like it to-night?"
+
+"I liked it when you really _sang_" replied Nan with a little yawn,
+"but it always took you such a time to get at it."
+
+A short silence fell.
+
+"Are you really going to sing at the Firemen's Ball?" she asked
+curiously.
+
+"I haven't been asked yet," he reminded her. "Don't you think it a good
+idea?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Nan, but her voice had a little edge. Keith
+felt it, and made the usual masculine blunder. He stopped short,
+thunderstruck at a new idea.
+
+"Why, Nan," he cried reproachfully, "I don't believe you like her!"
+
+"Like her!" she flashed back, her anger leaping to unreasonable
+proportions--"that old frump!"
+
+No sooner had the door closed after them than Morrell's conventional
+smile faded, and his countenance fell into its usual hard, cold
+impassivity.
+
+"Well, what is the game there?" he demanded.
+
+"There is no game," she replied indifferently.
+
+"There is very little money there, I warn you," he persisted.
+
+She turned on him with sudden fury.
+
+"Oh, shut up!" she cried. "I know my own business!"
+
+"And I know mine," he told her, slowly and dangerously. "And I warn you
+to go slow unless I give the word."
+
+She stared at him a moment, and he stared back. Then, quite
+deliberately, she walked over to him until her breast almost touched
+him. Her eyes were half closed, and a little smile parted her full lips.
+
+"Charley," she drawled wickedly, "I warn _you_ to go slow. And I warn
+you not to interfere with me--or I might interfere with you!"
+
+Morrell shrugged his shoulders, and turned away with an assumption of
+indifference.
+
+"Please yourself. But I can't afford a scandal just now."
+
+"_You_ can't afford a _scandal!_" she cried, and laughed hardly.
+
+"Not just now," he repeated.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+Perhaps this unwise antagonizing by her husband, perhaps the idleness
+with which the well-to-do woman was afflicted, perhaps a genuine liking
+for Keith, gave Mrs. Morrell just the impulse needed. At any rate, she
+used the common bond of music to bring him much into her company. This
+was not a difficult matter. Keith was extravagantly fond of just this
+sort of experimental amateur excursions into lighter music, and he
+liked Mrs. Morrell. She was a good sort, straightforward and honest and
+direct, no nonsense in her, but she knew her way about, and a man could
+have a sort of pleasing, harmless flirtation to which she knew how to
+play up. There was not, nor could there be--in Keith's mind--any harm
+in their relations. Nan was the woman for him; but that didn't mean
+that he was never to see anybody else, or that other women might
+not--of course in unessential and superficial ways--answer some of his
+varied needs.
+
+Mrs. Morrell was skilful at keeping up his interest, and she was
+equally skilful in gradually excluding Nan. This was not difficult, for
+Nan was secretly bored by the eternal practising, and repelled by Mrs.
+Morrell's efforts to be fascinating. She saw them plainly enough, but
+was at first merely amused and faintly disgusted, for she was proud
+enough to believe absolutely that such crude methods could have no
+effect on Milton, overlooking the fact that the crudities of women
+never appear as plainly to a man as they do to another woman. For a
+woman is in the know. At first she offered one excuse or another, in an
+attempt to be both polite and plausible. She much preferred a book at
+home, or a whole free evening to work at making her house attractive.
+Later, Keith got into the habit of taking her attitude for granted.
+
+"I promised to run over to the Morrells' this evening," he would say,
+"More music. Of course you won't care to come. You won't be lonely? I
+won't be gone late."
+
+"Of course not," she laughed. "I'm thankful for the chance to get
+through with the blue room."
+
+Nevertheless, after a time she began to experience a faint,
+unreasonable resentment; and Keith an equally faint, equally
+unreasonable feeling of guilt.
+
+Left to itself this situation would, therefore, have righted itself,
+but Mrs. Morrell was keen enough to give it the required directing
+touches:
+
+"Too bad we can't tear your wife away from her house and garden."
+
+"If you only had some one to practise with regularly at home! Your
+voice ought to be systematically cultivated. It is wonderful!"
+
+And later:
+
+"You ought not to come here so much, I suppose--" rather doubtfully,
+"Any sort of practice and accompaniment--even my poor efforts--does you
+so much good! You or I would understand perfectly, but it is sometimes
+so difficult for the inexperienced domestic type to comprehend! An
+older woman who understands men knows--but come, we must sing that once
+more."
+
+The effect of these and a thousand similar speeches injected apparently
+at random here and there in the tide of other things was at once to
+intensify Keith's vague feeling of guilt, and to put it in the light
+somehow of an injustice to himself. He had an unformulated notion that
+if Nan would or could only understand the situation and be a good
+fellow that every one would be happy; but as she was a mere woman, with
+a woman's prejudices, this was impossible. It was absurd to expect him
+to give up his music just because she wanted to be different! He had
+really nothing whatever to conceal; and yet it actually seemed that
+difficulty and concealment would be necessary if this sort of unspoken
+reproach were kept up. Women were so confoundedly single-minded!
+
+And as the normal, healthy, non-introspective male tends to avoid
+discomfort, even of his own making, it thus came about that Keith spent
+less and less time at home. He did not explain to himself why. It was
+certainly no lessening of his affection for Nan. Only he felt
+absolutely sure of her, and the mental situation sketched above left
+him more open to the lure of downtown, which to any live man was in
+those days especially great. Every evening the "fellows" got together,
+jawed things over, played pool, had a drink or so, wandered from one
+place to another, looked with the vivid interest of the young and
+able-bodied on the seething, colourful, vital life of the new
+community. It was all harmless and mighty pleasant. Keith argued that
+he was "establishing connections" and meeting men who could do his
+profession good, which was more or less true; but it took him from home
+evenings.
+
+Nan, at first, quite innocently played into his hands. She really
+preferred to stay at home rather than be bored at the Morrells'. Later,
+when this tradition had been established, she began to be disturbed,
+not by any suspicion that Milton's interest was straying, but by a
+feeling of neglect. She was hurt. And little by little, in spite of
+herself, a jealousy of the woman next door began to tinge her solitude.
+Her nature was too noble and generous to harbour such a sentiment
+without a struggle. She blamed herself for unworthy and wretched
+jealousy, and yet she could not help herself. Often, especially at
+first, Keith in an impulse would throw over his plans, and ask her to
+go to the theatre or a concert, of which there were many and excellent.
+She generally declined, not because she did not want to go, but because
+of that impelling desire, universal in the feminine soul, to be a
+little wooed to it, to be compelled by gentle persuasion that should at
+once make up for the past and be an earnest for the future. Only Keith
+took her refusal at its face value. Nan was lonely and hurt.
+
+Her refusals to respond to his rather spasmodic attempts to be nice to
+her were adopted by Keith's subconscious needs for comfort. If she
+didn't want to see anything of life, she shouldn't expect him to bury
+himself. His restless mind gradually adopted the fiction persistently
+held before him by Mrs. Morrell that his wife was indeed a domestic
+little body, fond only of her home and garden. As soon as he had
+hypnotized himself into the full acceptance of this, he felt much
+happier, His uneasiness fell from him, and he continued life with zest.
+If any one had told him that he was neglecting Nan, he probably would
+have been surprised. They were busy; they met amicably; there were no
+reproaches; they managed to get about and enjoy things together quite a
+lot.
+
+The basis for the latter illusion rested on the Sunday excursions and
+picnics. Both the Keiths always attended them. There was invariably the
+same crowd--the Morrells; Dick Blatchford, the contractor, and his fat,
+coarse-grained, good-natured Irish wife; Calhoun Bennett; Ben Sansome:
+Sally Warner, a dashing grass widow, whose unknown elderly husband
+seemed to be always away "at the mines"; Teeny McFarlane, small,
+dainty, precise, blond, exquisite, cool, with very self-possessed
+manners and decided ways, but with the capacity for occasionally and
+with deliberation outdoing the worst of them, about whom were whispered
+furtive things the rumour of which died before her armoured front; her
+husband, a fat, jolly, round-faced, somewhat pop-eyed man who adored
+her and was absolutely ignorant of one side of her. These and a
+sprinkling of "fast" youths made the party. Sometimes the celebrated
+Sam Brannan went along, loud, coarse, shrewd, bull voiced, kindly when
+not crossed, unscrupulous, dictatorial, and overbearing, They all got
+to know each other very well and to be very free in one another's
+society.
+
+The usual procedure was to drive in buggies, sometimes to the beach,
+sometimes down the peninsula, starting rather early, and staying out
+all day. Occasionally rather elaborate lunches were brought, with
+servants to spread them; but the usual custom was to stop at one of the
+numerous road houses. No man drove, walked, or talked with his own
+wife; nevertheless, these affairs though rowdy, noisy, and "fast"
+enough, were essentially harmless. The respectable members of the
+community were sufficiently shocked, however. Gay dresses, gay
+laughter, gay behaviour, gay scorn of convention, above all, the resort
+to the mysterious naughty road houses were enough. It must be confessed
+that at times things seemed to go a bit far; but Nan, who was at first
+bewildered and shocked, noticed that the women did many things in
+public and nothing in private. As already her mind and tolerance were
+adapting themselves to new things, she was able to accept it all
+philosophically as part of a new phase of life.
+
+These people had no misgivings about themselves, and they passed
+judgment on others with entire assurance. In their slang all with whom
+they came into contact were either "hearses" or "live Mollies." There
+was nothing racial, local, or social in this division. A family might
+be divided, one member being a live Molly, and all the rest the most
+dismal of hearses. Occasionally a stranger might be brought along. He
+did not know it, but always he was very carefully watched and
+appraised: his status discussed and decided at the supper to which the
+same people--minus all strangers--gathered later. At one of these
+discussions a third estate came into being.
+
+Teeny McFarlane had that day brought with her a young man of about
+twenty-four or twenty-five, well dressed, of pleasant features,
+agreeable in manner, well spoken, but quiet.
+
+"He isn't a live Molly," stated Sally positively.
+
+"Well, Sally took a walk with him," observed Sam Brannan dryly; "she
+ought to know!"
+
+"Don't need to take a walk with him," countered Sally; "just take a
+talk with him--or try to.".
+
+"I did try to," interpolated Mrs. Morrell.
+
+"May as well make it unanimous, looks like," said Sam. "He goes for a
+hearse."
+
+But Teeny McFarlane interposed in her positive, precise little way.
+
+"I object," she drawled. "He certainly isn't as bad as all that. He's a
+nice boy, and he never bored anybody in his life. Did he bore you,
+Sally?"
+
+"I can't say he did, now you mention it. He's one of those nice doggy
+people you don't mind having around."
+
+They discussed the matter animatedly. Teeny McFarlane developed an
+unexpected obstinacy. She did not suggest that the young man was to be
+included in any of the future parties; indeed, she answered the direct
+question decidedly in the negative; no, there was no use trying to
+include anybody unless they decidedly "belonged."
+
+"You wouldn't call him a live Molly, now would you, Teeny?" implored
+Cal Bennett.
+
+"No," she answered slowly, "I suppose not. But he is _not_ a hearse."
+
+The men, all but Popsy McFarlane, were inspecting Teeny's cool,
+unrevealing exterior with covert curiosity. She was always an enigma to
+them. Each man was asking himself why her interest in the mere
+labelling of this stranger.
+
+"He isn't a live Molly and she objects to his being a hearse," laughed
+Sally. "He must be something between them. What," she inquired, with
+the air of propounding a conundrum, "is between a live Molly and a
+hearse?"
+
+"Give it up!" they cried unanimously.
+
+Sally looked nonplussed, then shrieked: "Why, the pallbearers, of
+course!"
+
+The silly phrase caught. Thereafter, those who were acknowledged to be
+all right enough but not of their feather were known as "pallbearers."
+
+The Keiths were live Mollies. He was decidedly one. His appearance
+alone inspired good nature and high spirits, he looked so clean,
+vividly coloured, enthusiastic, alive to his finger tips. He was always
+game for anything, no matter how ridiculous it made him, or in what
+sort of a so-called false position it might place him. When he had
+reached a certain state of dancing-eyed joyous recklessness, Nan was
+always athrill as to what he might do next. And Nan, spite of her
+quieter ways and the reserves imposed on her by her breeding, was
+altogether too pretty and too much of a real person ever to be classed
+as a hearse. With her ravishing Eastern toilettes, her clear, creamy
+complexion, and the clean-cut lines of her throat, chin, and cheeks,
+she always made the other women look a little too vividly accented. The
+men all admired her on sight, and at first did their best to interest
+her. They succeeded, for in general they were of vital stuff, but not
+in the intimately personal way they desired. Her nature found no thrill
+in experiment. One by one they gave her up in the favour of less
+attractive but livelier or more complaisant companions; but they
+continued to like her and to pay her much general attention. She never,
+in any nuance of manner, even tried to make a difference; nevertheless,
+their attitude toward her was always more deferential than to the other
+women.
+
+Ben Sansome was the one exception to the first part of the above
+statement. Her gentle but obvious withdrawals from his advances piqued
+his conceit. Ben was a spoiled youth, with plenty of money; and he had
+always been a spoiled youth, with plenty of money. Why he had come to
+San Francisco no one knew. Possibly he did not know himself; for as his
+affairs had always been idle, he had drifted much, and might have
+drifted here. Whatever the reason, the fact remained that in this busy,
+new, and ambitious community he was the one example professionally of
+the gilded youth. His waistcoats, gloves, varnished boots, jewellery,
+handkerchiefs were always patterns to the other amateur, gilded youths
+who had also other things to do. His social tact was enormous, and a
+recognized institution. If there had been cotillons, he would have led
+them; but as there were no cotillons, he contented himself with being
+an _arbiter elegantiarum_. He rather prided himself on his knowledge of
+such things as jades, old prints, and obscure poets of whom nobody else
+had ever heard. Naturally he had always been a great success with
+women, both as harmless parlour ornaments, and in more dangerous ways.
+In San Francisco he had probably carried farther than he would have
+carried anywhere else. He had sustained no serious reverses, because
+difficult game had not heretofore interested him. Entering half
+interestedly with Nan into what he vaguely intended as one of his
+numerous, harmless, artistic, perfumed flirtationlets, he had found
+himself unexpectedly held at arm's length. Just this was needed to
+fillip his fancy. He went into the game as a game. Sansome made himself
+useful. By dint of being on hand whenever Keith's carelessness had left
+her in need of an escort, and only then, he managed to establish
+himself on a recognized footing as a sort of privileged, charming,
+useful, harmless family friend.
+
+Outside this small, rather lively coterie the Keiths had very few
+friends. It must be confessed that the mothers of the future leaders of
+San Francisco society, and the bearers of what were to be her proudest
+names, were mostly "hearses." Their husbands were the forceful, able
+men of the city, but they themselves were conventional as only
+conventional women can be when goaded into it by a general
+free-and-easy, unconventional atmosphere. That was their only method of
+showing disapproval. The effect was worthy but dull. It was a pity, for
+among them were many intelligent, charming women who needed only a
+different atmosphere, to expand. The Keiths never saw them, and gained
+their ideas of them only from the merciless raillery of the "live
+Mollies."
+
+All this implied more or less entertaining, and entertaining was
+expensive. The Boyle house was expensive for that matter; and about
+everything else, save Chinese servants, and, temporarily, whatever the
+latest clipper ship had glutted the market with. Keith had brought with
+him a fair sum of money with which to make his start; but under this
+constant drainage, it dwindled to what was for those times a
+comparatively small sum. Clients did not come. There were more men
+practising law than all the other professions. In spite of wide
+acquaintance and an attractive popular personality, Keith had not as
+yet made a start. He did not worry--that was not his nature--but he
+began to realize that he must do one of two things: either make some
+money, somehow, or give up his present mode of living. The latter
+course was unthinkable!
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+One morning Keith was sitting in his office cogitating these things.
+His door opened and a meek, mild little wisp of a man sidled in. He
+held his hat in his hand, revealing clearly sandy hair and a narrow
+forehead. His eyebrows and lashes were sandy, his eyes pale blue, his
+mouth weak but obstinate. On invitation he seated himself on the edge
+of the chair, and laid his hat carefully beside him on the floor.
+
+"I am Dr. Jacob Jones," he said, blinking at Keith. "You have heard of
+me?"
+
+"I am afraid I have not," said Keith pleasantly.
+
+The little man sighed.
+
+"I have held the City Hospital contract for three years," he explained,
+"and they owe me a lot of money. I thought you might collect some of
+it."
+
+"I think if you'd put in a claim through the usual channels you'd
+receive your dues," advised Keith, somewhat puzzled. He had not heard
+that the city was refusing to pay legitimate claims.
+
+"I've done that, and they've given me these," said Doctor Jones,
+handing Keith a bundle of papers.
+
+Keith glanced at them.
+
+"This is 'scrip,'" he said. "It's perfectly good. When the city is
+without current funds it issues this scrip, bearing interest at 3 per
+cent. a month. It's all right."
+
+"Yes, I know," said the little man ineffectually, "but I don't want
+scrip."
+
+Keith ran it over. It amounted to something like eleven thousand
+dollars.
+
+"What do you want done about it?" he asked,
+
+"I want you to collect the money for me."
+
+But Keith, had recollected something.
+
+"Just wait a minute, please," he begged, and darted across the hall to
+a friend's office, returning after a moment with a file of legislative
+reports. "I thought I'd heard something about it; here it is. The State
+Legislature has voted an issue of 10 per cent. bonds to take up the
+scrip."
+
+"I don't understand," said Doctor Jones.
+
+"Why, you take your scrip to the proper official and exchange it for an
+equal value of State bonds."
+
+"But what good does that do me?" cried Jones excitedly. "It doesn't get
+me my money. They don't guarantee I can sell the bonds at par, do they?
+And answer me this: isn't it just a scheme to cheat me of my interest?
+As I understand it, instead of 3 per cent. a month I'm to get 10 per
+cent. a year?"
+
+"That's the effect," corroborated Keith.
+
+"Well, I don't want bonds, I want money, as is my due."
+
+"Wait a minute," said Keith. He read the report again slowly. "This
+says that holders of scrip _may_ exchange, for bonds; it does not say
+they _must_ exchange," he said finally. "If that interpretation is made
+of the law, suit and judgment would lie against the city. Do you want
+to try that?"
+
+"Of course I want to try it!" cried Jones.
+
+"Well, bring me your contract and vouchers, and any other papers to do
+with the case, and I'll see what can be done."
+
+"I have them right here," said Doctor Jones.
+
+This, as Keith's first case, interested him more than its intrinsic
+worth warranted. It amused him to bring all his powers to bear,
+fighting strongly for the technical point, and finally establishing it
+in court. In spite of the evident intention of the Legislature that
+city scrip should be retired in favour of bonds, it was ruled that the
+word _may_ in place of the word _must_ practically nullified that
+intention. Judgment was obtained against the city for eleven thousand
+dollars, and the sheriff was formally instructed to sell certain
+water-front lots in order to satisfy that judgment. The sale was duly
+advertised in the papers.
+
+Next morning, after the first insertion of this advertisement, Keith
+had three more callers. These were men of importance: namely, John
+Geary, the first postmaster and last _alcalde_ of the new city; William
+Hooper, and James King of William, at that time still a banker. These
+were grave, solid, and weighty citizens, plainly dressed, earnest, and
+forceful. They responded politely but formally to Keith's salute, and
+seated themselves.
+
+"You were, I understand, counsel for Doctor Jones in obtaining judgment
+on the hospital scrip?" inquired Geary.
+
+"That is correct," acknowledged Keith.
+
+"We have called to inform you of a fact that perhaps escaped your
+notice: namely, that these gentlemen and myself have been appointed by
+the Legislature as commissioners to manage the funded debt of the city;
+that, for that purpose, title of all city lands has been put in our
+hands."
+
+"No, I did not know that," said Keith.
+
+"Therefore, you see," went on Geary, "the sheriff cannot pass title to
+any lots that might be sold to satisfy Doctor Jones's judgment."
+
+Keith pondered, his alert mind seizing with avidity on this new and
+interesting situation.
+
+"No, I cannot quite see that," he said at last; "the actual title is in
+the city. It owns its property. You gentlemen do not claim to own it,
+as individuals. You have delegated to you the power to pass title, just
+as the sheriff and one or two others have that power; but you have not
+the _sole_ power."
+
+"We have advice that title conveyed under this judgment will be
+invalid."
+
+"That is a matter for the courts to settle."
+
+"The courts----" began Hooper explosively, but Geary overrode him.
+
+"If all the creditors of the city were to adopt the course pursued by
+Doctor Jones, the city would soon be bankrupt of resources."
+
+"That is true," agreed Keith.
+
+"Then cannot I appeal to your sense of civic patriotism?"
+
+"Gentlemen," replied Keith, "you seem to forget that in this matter I
+am not acting for myself, but for a client. If it were my affair, I
+might feel inclined to discuss the matter with you more in detail. But
+I am only an agent."
+
+"But----" interrupted Hooper again.
+
+"That is quite true," interjected James King of William.
+
+"Well, we shall see your client," went on Geary, "But I might state
+that on the side of his own best interests he would do well to go slow.
+There is at least a considerable doubt as to the legality of this sale.
+It is unlikely that people will care to bid."
+
+After some further polite conversation they took their leave. Keith
+quickly discovered that the opinion held by the commissioners was
+shared by most of his friends. They acknowledged the brilliance of his
+legal victory, admired it heartily, and congratulated him; but they
+considered that victory barren.
+
+"Nobody will buy; you won't get two bits a lot bid," they all told him.
+
+Little Doctor Jones came to him much depressed. The commissioners had
+talked with him.
+
+"Do you want my advice?" asked Keith, "Then do this: stick to your
+guns."
+
+But little Jones was scared.
+
+"I want my money," said he; "perhaps I'd better take those bonds after
+all."
+
+"Look here," suddenly said Keith, who had been making up his mind.
+"I'll guarantee you the full amount in cash, within, say, two weeks,
+but only on this condition: that you go out now, and spread it about
+everywhere that you are going to stand pat. Tell 'em all you are going
+to push through this sale."
+
+"How do I know----"
+
+"Take a chance," interrupted Keith. "If at the end of two weeks I don't
+pay you cash, you can do what you please. Call off the sheriff's sale
+at the last minute; I'll pay the costs myself. Come, that's fair
+enough. You can't lose a cent."
+
+"All right," agreed Jones after a minute.
+
+"Remember: it's part of the bargain that you state everywhere that
+you're going to force this sale, and that you don't let anybody bluff
+you."
+
+The affair made quite a little stir. Men like Sam Brannan, Dick
+Blatchford, the contractor, and Jim Polk discussed Keith and his
+ability.
+
+"Got a pretty wife, too," added Brannan. "--never heard of the fall of
+man."
+
+"Well, she's going to, if the Morrell woman has her way," observed Ben
+Sansome dryly.
+
+Polk stretched his long legs, and smiled his desiccated little smile.
+
+"He's a pretty enterprising youngster--more ways than one," said he.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+On the evening of the third day after his latest interview with Doctor
+Jones, Keith threw down his paper with a cry of triumph. He had been
+scanning the columns of every issue with minute care, combing even the
+fine print for the auctioneer's advertisements. Here was what he
+wanted: top of column, third page, where every one would be sure to see
+it. The commissioners issued a signed statement, calling public
+attention to the details of their appointment, and warning that titles
+issued under sheriff's sale would be considered invalid.
+
+Keith read this with great attention, then drew his personal check
+against Palmer, Cook & Co. for eleven thousand dollars in favour of
+Doctor Jones. After some search he unearthed the little man in a
+downtown rookery, and from him obtained an assignment of his judgment
+against the city. Doctor Jones lost no time spreading the news, with
+the additional statement that he considered himself well out of the
+mess. He proceeded to order himself a long-coveted microscope, and was
+thenceforth lost to sight among low-tide rocks and marine algae. The
+sheriff's sale came off at the advertised date. There were no bidders;
+the commissioners' warning had had its effect. Keith himself bought in
+the lots for $5,000. This check about exhausted his resources. This,
+less costs, was, of course, paid back to himself as holder of the
+judgment. He had title, such as it was, for about what he had given
+Jones.
+
+The bargain amused Keith's acquaintance hugely. Whenever he appeared he
+was deluged with chaff, all of which he took, good naturedly. He was
+considered, in a moment of aberration, to have bought an exceedingly
+doubtful equity. Some thought, he must have a great deal of money,
+arguing that only the owner of a fat bank account could afford to take
+such fliers; others considered that he must have very little sense.
+Keith was apparently unperturbed. He at once began to look about him,
+considering the next step in his scheme. Since this investment had
+taken nearly every cent he had left, it was incumbent to raise more
+money at once.
+
+He called on John Sherwood at the Empire. The gambler listened to him
+attentively.
+
+"I can't go into it," he said, when Keith had finished. A slight smile
+sketched itself on his strong, impassive face. "Not that I do not
+believe it will work; I think it will. But I have long made it a rule
+never to try to make money outside my own business--which is gambling.
+I never adopt ordinary honest methods."
+
+Keith's honest but legally trained mind failed to notice the quiet
+sarcasm of this. "Well, you know everybody in town. Where can I go?"
+
+Sherwood thought a moment.
+
+"I'll take you to Malcolm Neil," he said at last. It was Keith's turn
+to look thoughtful.
+
+"All right," he said at last. "But not just right away. Give me a
+couple of days to get ready."
+
+At the appointed time Sherwood escorted Keith to Malcolm Neil's office,
+introduced and left him. Keith took the proffered wooden chair,
+examining his man with the keenest attention.
+
+Malcolm Neil, spite of his Scotch name, was a New Englander by birth.
+He had come out in '49, intending, like everybody else, to go to the
+mines, but had never gone farther than San Francisco. The new city
+offered ample scope for his talents, and he speedily became, not only
+rich, but a dominating personality among financial circles. He
+accomplished this by supplementing his natural ability with absolute
+singleness of purpose. It was known that his sole idea was the making
+of money. He was reputed to be hard, devoid of sentiment, unscrupulous.
+Naturally he enjoyed no popularity, but a vast respect. More people had
+heard of him, or felt his power, than had seen him; for he went little
+abroad, and preferred to work through agents. John Sherwood's service
+in obtaining for Keith a personal interview was a very real one. Neil's
+offices were small, dingy, and ill lighted, at the back of one of the
+older and cheaper buildings. In the outer of the two were three
+bookkeepers; the other contained only a desk, two chairs, and an
+engraving of Daniel Webster addressing the Senate.
+
+The man himself sat humped over slightly, his head thrust a little
+forward as though on the point of launching a truculent challenge. He
+was lean, gray, with bushy, overhanging brows, eyes with glinting
+metallic surfaces, had long sinewy hands, and a carved granite and
+inscrutable face, His few words of greeting revealed his voice as
+harsh, grating and domineering.
+
+Keith, reading his man, wasted no time in preliminaries.
+
+"Mr. Neil," he said, "I have a scheme by which a great deal of money
+can be made."
+
+Neil grunted. If it had not been for the fact that John Sherwood had
+introduced the maker of that speech, the interview would have here
+terminated. Malcolm Neil deeply distrusted men with schemes to make
+large sums of money. After a time, as Keith still waited, he growled;
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That," said Keith, "I shall not disclose until my standing in the
+matter is assured."
+
+"What do you want?" growled Neil.
+
+"Fifty per cent of the profits, if you go in."
+
+"What do you want of me?"
+
+"The capital."
+
+"What is the scheme?"
+
+"That I cannot tell you without some assurance of your good intention."
+
+"What do you expect?" rasped Neil, "that I go into this blind?"
+
+"I have prepared this paper," said Keith, handing him a document.
+
+Neil glanced over the paper, then read it through slowly, with great
+care. When he had finished, he looked up at Keith, and there was a
+gleam of admiration in his frosty eye.
+
+"You are a lawyer, I take it?" he surmised.
+
+Keith nodded. Neil went over the document for the third time.
+
+"And a good one," added Neil. "This is watertight. It seems to be a
+contract agreeing to the division you suggest, _providing_ I go into
+the scheme. Very well, I'll sign this." He raised his voice. "Samuels,
+come in and witness this. Now, what is the scheme?"
+
+Keith produced another paper.
+
+"It is written out in detail here."
+
+Neil reached for it, but Keith drew it back.
+
+"One moment."
+
+He turned it over on the blank side and wrote:
+
+"This is in full the financial deal referred to in contract entered
+into this 7th of June, 1852, by Malcolm Neil and Milton Keith."
+
+To this he appended his signature, then handed the pen to Neil.
+
+"Sign," he requested.
+
+Neil took the pen, but hesitated for some moments, his alert brain
+seeking some way out. Finally and grudgingly he signed. Then he leaned
+back in his chair, eying Keith with rather a wintry humour, though he
+made no comment. He reached again for the paper, but Keith put his hand
+on it.
+
+"What more do you want?" inquired Neil in amused tones. His sense of
+humour had been touched on its only vulnerable point. He appreciated
+keen and subtle practice when he saw it.
+
+"Not a thing," laughed Keith, "but a few words of explanation before
+you read that will make it more easily understood. Can you tell me how
+much water lots are worth?"
+
+"Five to eight thousand for fifty varas."
+
+"All right. I've bought ten fifty vara lots at sheriff's sale for five
+thousand dollars."
+
+Neil's eye went cold.
+
+"I've heard of that. Your title is no good. The reason you got them so
+cheaply was that nobody would bid because of that."
+
+"That's for the courts to decide. The fact remains that I've a title,
+even though clouded, at $500 per lot."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"Well, the commissioners are now advertising a sale of these same lots
+at auction on the 15th."
+
+"So I see."
+
+"Well," said Keith softly, "it strikes me that whoever buys these lots
+then is due for a heap of trouble."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"My title from the sheriff may be clouded, but it will be contested
+against the title given at that sale. The purchaser will have to defend
+himself up to the highest court. I can promise him a good fight."
+
+Neil was now watching him steadily,
+
+"If that fact could be widely advertised," went on Keith slowly, "by
+way of a threat, so to speak, it strikes me it would be very apt to
+discourage bidding at the commissioners' sale. Nobody wants to buy a
+lot of lawsuits, at any price. In absence of competition, a fifty vara
+lot might be sold for as low as--say $500."
+
+Neil nodded, Keith leaned forward.
+
+"Now here's my real idea: suppose _I_ buy in against this timid
+bidding. Suppose _I_ am the one who gets the commissioners' title for
+$500. Then I have both titles. And I am not likely to contest against
+myself. It's cost me $1,000 per lot--$500 at each sale--a profit of
+from $4,000 to $7,000 on each lot."
+
+He leaned back. Malcolm Neil sat like a graven image, no expression
+showing on his flintlike face nor in his eyes. At length he chuckled
+harshly. Then, and not until then, Keith proceeded:
+
+"But that isn't all. There's plenty more scrip afloat. If you can buy
+up as much of it as you can scrape together, I'll get judgment for it
+in the courts, and we can enlarge the deal until somebody smells a rat.
+We need several things."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Secrecy."
+
+Neil made no reply, but the lines of his mouth straightened.
+
+"Influence to push matters along in official circles."
+
+"Matters will be pushed along."
+
+"A newspaper."
+
+"Leave that to me."
+
+"Agents--not known to be connected with us."
+
+Neil nodded.
+
+"Working capital--but that is provided for in the contract. And"--he
+hesitated--"it will not harm to have these matters brought before a
+court whose judge is not unfriendly."
+
+"I can arrange for that, Mr. Keith."
+
+Keith arose.
+
+"Then that is settled." He picked up the duplicate copy of the
+contract. "There remains only one other formality."
+
+"Yes? What?"
+
+"Your check for $12,000."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For my expenses in this matter up to date."
+
+"What!" cried Neil.
+
+"The contract specifies that you are to furnish the working capital,"
+Keith pointed out.
+
+"But that means the future--"
+
+"It doesn't say so."
+
+Neil paused a moment.
+
+"This contract would not hold in law, and you know it," he asserted
+boldly. "It would be held to be an illegal conspiracy."
+
+"I would be pleased to have you point out the illegality in court,"
+said Keith coldly, his manner as frosty as Neil's. "And if conspiracy
+exists, your name is affixed to it."
+
+Neil pondered this point a moment, then drew his checkbook toward him
+with a grim little smile.
+
+"Young man, you win," said he.
+
+Keith thawed to sunniness at once.
+
+"Oh, we'll work together all right, once we understand each other," he
+laughed. "Send your man out after scrip. Let him report to me."
+
+Neil arose rather stiffly, and extended his hand.
+
+"All right, all right!" he muttered, as though impatient. "Keep In
+touch. Good-day. Good-day."
+
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+
+The time for the annual Firemen's Ball was now at hand. At this period
+the Firemen's Ball was an institution of the first social importance.
+As has been shown, the various organizations were voluntary
+associations, and in their ranks birds of a feather flocked together.
+On the common meeting ground of the big annual function all elements
+met, even--if they did not mingle as freely as they might.
+
+In any case, the affair was very elaborate and very gorgeous.
+Preparations were in the hands of special committees months in advance.
+One company had charge of the refreshments, another of the music, a
+third of the floor arrangements, and so on. There was much jealous
+anxiety that each should do its part thoroughly and lavishly, for the
+honour of its organization. The members of each committee were
+distinguished by coloured ribbons, which they wore importantly
+everywhere. An air of preoccupied business was the proper thing for
+days before the event.
+
+It was held this year in one of the armouries. The decoration committee
+had done its most desperate. Flags of all nations and strips of
+coloured bunting draped the rafters; greens from the Sausalito Hills
+framed the windows and doors; huge oiled Chinese lanterns swayed from
+the roofs. The floor shone like glass. At either end bowers of green
+half concealed the orchestras--two of them, that the music might never
+cease. The side rooms were set for refreshments. Many chairs lined the
+walls. Hundreds of lamps and reflectors had been nailed up in every
+conceivable place. It took a negro over an hour to light them all. Near
+the door stood a wide, flat table piled high with programs for the
+dancers. These were elaborate affairs, and had cost a mint of
+money--vellum folders, emblazoned in colour outside, with a sort of
+fireman heraldry and the motto: "We strive to save." Gilded pencils on
+short silken tasselled cords dangled from their corners.
+
+At eight o'clock the lights were all blazing, the orchestras were
+tuning, and the floor fluttered with anxious labelled committeemen
+dashing to and fro. There was nothing for them to do, but they were
+nervous. By half-past eight the first arrivals could be seen hesitating
+at the outer door, as though reluctant to make a plunge; herded finally
+to the right and left of men's and women's dressing-rooms. After a
+long, chattering interval, encouraged by the slow accumulation of
+numbers, a little group debouched on the main, floor. Its members all
+talked and laughed feverishly, and tried with varying success to assume
+an accustomed ease they did not feel. Most of the women, somehow,
+seemed all white gloves and dancing slippers, and bore themselves
+rather like affable, slightly scared rabbits. The men suddenly became
+very facetious, swapping jokes in loud tones.
+
+The orchestra at the far end immediately struck up, but nobody ventured
+on the huge and empty floor. Masters of ceremonies, much bebadged,
+rather conscious of white gloves, strove earnestly with hurried,
+ingratiating smiles to induce the younger members to break the ice. Ben
+Sansome, remarkable among them for his social ease and the unobtrusive
+correctness of his appointments, responsible head of the reception
+committee, masterfully seized a blushing, protesting damsel and whirled
+her away. This, however, was merely an informal sort of opening. The
+real bail could start only with the grand march; and the grand march
+was a pompous and intricate affair, possible only after the arrival of
+the city's elite. Partners for the grand march had been bespoken months
+before.
+
+The Keiths arrived about half-past nine. Nan was looking particularly
+well in her girlish fashion. Her usual delicate colour was heightened
+by anticipation, for she intended ardently to "have a good time." For
+this occasion, too, she had put on the best of her new Eastern clothes,
+and was confident of the sensation they would create in the feminine
+breast. The gown was of silk the colour of pomegranate blossoms, light
+and filmy, with the wide skirts of the day, the short sleeves, the low
+neck. Over bodice and skirt had been gracefully trailed long sprays of
+blossoms. Similar flowers wreathed her head, on which the hair was done
+low and smooth, with a golden arrow securing it. A fine golden chain
+spanned her waist. From it dangled smaller chains at the ends of which
+depended little golden hands. These held up the front of the skirt
+artistically, at just the right height for dancing and to show flounces
+and ravishing petticoats beneath. It was an innovation of the sort the
+feminine heart delights in, a brand-new thing straight from Paris.
+Nan's gloves were of half length, the backs of the hands embroidered
+and displaying each several small sparkling jewels. The broad golden
+bracelets had been clasped outside the gloves. Around her little finger
+was a ring from which depended, on the end of a chain, a larger ring,
+and through this larger ring hung her dainty lace handkerchief. This
+was innovation number two. The men all stared at her proud, delicate,
+flowerlike effect of fresh beauty; but every woman present, and Nan
+knew it, noted first, the cut of her gown, second, the dangling little
+golden hands, and third, the handkerchief ring. She knew that not later
+than to-morrow at least a half-dozen urgent orders would be booked at
+Palmerston's; but she knew, also, that at least six months must elapse
+before those orders could be filled. As for the rest, her stockings
+were white, her slippers ribboned with cross-ties up the ankles, she
+carried a stiff and formal bouquet, as big around as a plate, composed
+of wired flowers ornamented with a "cape" of lace paper; but those
+things were common.
+
+Altogether, Nan looked extraordinarily well, made a sensation. Keith
+was pleased and proud of her. He picked one of the blazoned vellum
+cards from the table and scrawled his initials opposite half a dozen
+dances.
+
+"I'm going to hold you to those, you know," he said.
+
+They proceeded, leisurely across the floor, and Keith established her
+in one of the chairs.
+
+"I'll go get some of the men I want you to meet," said he. When he
+returned with Bernard Black he found Nan already surrounded, Ben
+Sansome was there, and Calhoun Bennett, and a half-dozen others, either
+acquaintances made on some of the Sundays, or young men brought up by
+Sansome in his capacity of Master of Ceremonies. She was having a good
+time laughing, her colour high, Keith looked about him with the
+intention of filling his own card.
+
+Mrs. Morrell, surrounded by a hilarious group of the younger fry, was
+just entering the room. She was dressed in flame colour, and her gown
+was cut very low, plainly to reveal the swell of her ample bosom. Her
+evening gloves and slippers were golden, as was a broad metallic woven
+band around her waist. Altogether, striking, rather a conspicuous
+effort than an artistic success, any woman would have said; but there
+could be no doubt that she had provided a glittering bait for the
+attentions of the men.
+
+Keith immediately made his way across to her.
+
+"You are ravishing this evening," he said, reaching for her card. It
+was full. Keith was chopfallen.
+
+"Take me to Mrs. Keith," asked Mrs. Morrell, taking the card again,
+"She looks charming to-night; that simple style just suits her
+wide-eyed innocence."
+
+She placed her fingers lightly on Keith's arm and moved away, nodding
+over her shoulder at the rather nonplussed young men who had come in
+with her. Thus rid of them, she turned again to Keith.
+
+"You didn't think I'd forget you!" she said, as though, reproachfully.
+"See, I kept you four dances. I put down those initials myself. Now
+don't you think I'm a pretty good sort?"
+
+"Indeed I do! Which ones are they?" asked Keith, opening his own card.
+
+"The third, seventh, ninth, and eleventh."
+
+Keith hesitated for an appreciable instant. The seventh and eleventh he
+had put down for Nan. But somehow in the face of this smiling,
+cynical-looking, vivid creature, he rather shrank from saying that he
+had them with his wife. He swiftly reflected that, after all, he had
+four others with Nan, that she was so surrounded with admirers that she
+could not go partnerless, and that he would explain.
+
+"Delightful!" he cried, pencilling his program.
+
+Mrs. Morrell fluttered down alongside Mrs. Keith with much small talk.
+After a moment the music started for the grand march. Everybody took
+the floor.
+
+"Where can Charley be!" cried Mrs. Morrell in apparent distress. "Don't
+wait here with me. I assure you I do not in the least mind sitting
+alone."
+
+But she said it in a fashion that made it impossible, and in this
+manner Nan lost her first engagement with her husband. Not that it
+mattered particularly, she told herself, grand marches were rather
+silly things, and yet she could not avoid a feeling of thwarted pique
+at being so tied to the wall.
+
+At the close of the march, and after the couples had pretty well
+resumed their seats, Mrs. Sherwood entered, unattended and very
+leisurely. She made, in her quieter manner, a greater sensation than
+had Mrs. Morrell. Quite self-possessed, carrying herself with her
+customary poise, dressed unobtrusively in black and gold, but with the
+distinction of an indubitable Parisian model, moving without
+self-consciousness in contrast to many of the other women, her small
+head high, her direct gaze a-smoulder with lazy amusement, she glided
+across the middle of the floor. The eyes of every woman in the ballroom
+were upon her. The "respectable" element stared shamelessly, making
+comments aside. Those a little _declasse_, on the fringe of society, or
+the "faster" women like Mrs. Morrell--who might in a way be considered
+her rivals--were apparently quite unaware of her. She made her
+unhasting way to a vacant chair, sat down, and looked calmly about her.
+
+Immediately she was surrounded by a swarm of the unattached men. The
+attached men became very attentive to their partners.
+
+"Hullo," remarked Keith cheerfully. "There's Mrs. Sherwood. I must go
+over and say good-evening to her."
+
+On sudden impulse Nan rose with him. She instinctively disliked her
+present company and the situation; and a sudden pang of conscience had
+told her that not once since she had left the Bella Union had she laid
+eyes on the woman who had received her with so much kindness.
+
+"Take me with you," she said to Keith.
+
+"My dear!" cried Mrs. Morrell. "You wouldn't! Take my advice--you're
+young and innocent!"
+
+She sought one of those exclusive, private-joke glances at Keith, but
+failed to catch his eye.
+
+"She was very kind to me when I arrived," said Nan serenely. Keith,
+hesitated; then his impulsive, warm-hearted loyalty spoke.
+
+"Good for you, Nan!" he cried.
+
+They moved away, leaving Mrs. Morrell alone, biting her lip and
+planning revenges.
+
+The group around Mrs. Sherwood fell away at their approach. Nan sat
+down next her, leaning forward with a pretty and girlish, impulsiveness.
+
+"It's ages since I have seen you, and I have no excuse to offer," she
+said. "The days slip by."
+
+"I know," said Mrs. Sherwood. "New house, new Chinaman, even new
+dog--enough to drive the most important thoughts out of one's head. But
+you've come out to-night like a flower, my dear. Your gown is charming,
+and it suits you so well!"
+
+She chatted on, speaking of the floor, the music, the decorations, the
+crowd.
+
+"I love this sort of thing," she remarked. "People in the mass amuse
+me. Jack couldn't get away until midnight, but I wouldn't wait for him.
+I told him it didn't worry me a bit to come without an escort,"
+smoothing away what little embarrassment might linger. The music
+started up again. The Keiths arose and made their adieux. Mrs. Sherwood
+looked after them, her bright eyes tender. Mrs. Keith was the only
+woman who had yet spoken to her.
+
+"Isn't she simply stunning?" cried Keith. "She has something about her
+that makes most of these others look cheap."
+
+"She's really wonderfully attractive and distinguished looking," agreed
+Nan.
+
+"If she were only a little less practical--a little softer; more
+feminine--she'd be a sure-enough man killer. As it is, she needs a
+little more--you know what I mean--"
+
+"More after Mrs. Morrell's fashion," suggested Nan a trifle wickedly.
+It popped out on the impulse, and the next instant Nan would have given
+anything if the words had not been said. Keith was arrested in
+mid-enthusiasm as though by cold water. He checked himself, looked at
+her sharply, then accepted the pseudo-challenge.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Morrell, for all her little vulgarities, impresses you as
+being a very human sort of person."
+
+He felt a sudden and unreasoning anger, possibly because the shot had
+hit a tender place.
+
+"Shall we dance?" he suggested formally.
+
+"I'm sorry," replied Nan, "I have this with Mr. Sansome; there he
+comes."
+
+For the first time Keith felt a little irritated at the ubiquitous
+Sansome; but his sense of justice, while it could not smooth his
+ruffled feelings, nevertheless made itself heard.
+
+"What I need is a drink," he told himself.
+
+At the buffet he found a crowd of the non-dancing men, or those who had
+failed to get the early numbers. Here were many of his acquaintances;
+among them, to his surprise, he recognized the grim features of Malcolm
+Neil. All were drinking champagne. Keith joined them. They chaffed him
+unmercifully about his purchases of clouded titles in water lots, and
+he answered them in kind, aware of Neil's sardonically humorous eye
+fixed on him. But at the first bars of the next dance he bolted in
+search of Mrs. Morrell, with whom, he remembered, he had this number.
+
+Mrs. Morrell danced smoothly and lightly for a woman of her size, but
+was inclined to snuggle up too close, to permit undistracted guidance
+to her partner. It was almost impossible to avoid collisions with other
+couples, unless one possessed a Spartan mind and an iron will. In spite
+of himself, Keith became increasingly aware of her breast pressing
+against his chest; her smooth arm against his shoulder; the occasional
+passing contact of her, scarcely veiled from the sense of touch by the
+thin flame-coloured silk; the perfume she affected; the faint odour of
+her bright blond hair. In an attempt to break the spell he made some
+banal remark, but she shook her head impatiently. She danced with her
+eyes half closed. When the music stopped she drew a deep sighing breath.
+
+"You dance--oh, divinely!" she cried. "I might have known it."
+
+She moved away, and Keith followed her, a trifle intoxicated.
+
+"Let me see your card," she demanded abruptly. "Why, you haven't done
+your duty; this is hardly a third filled!"
+
+"I hadn't started to fill it--and then you came in," breathed Keith.
+
+They were opposite the door leading into one of the numerous small
+rooms off the main floor of the armoury.
+
+"Let's sit here--and you can get me a punch," she suggested.
+
+He brought the punch, and she drank it slowly, leaning back in an easy
+chair. The place was dimly lighted, and her blond, full beauty was more
+effective than in the more brilliantly lighted ballroom. Mrs. Morrell
+exerted all her fascination. The next dance was half over before either
+Keith or--apparently--Mrs. Morrell became aware of the fact.
+
+"Oh, you must run!" she cried, apparently greatly exercised. "Don't
+mind me; go and find your partner."
+
+Keith replied, that he had this dance free, a fact of which her
+inspection of his card had perfectly informed her. In answer to his
+return solicitation as to her own partner, she shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Oh, he'll find me," she said indifferently. "This is very cozy here."
+
+They resumed what had become an ardent flirtation. Toward the end of
+the dance Mrs. Morrell's partner came in, looking very flurried. Before
+he could say a word, Mrs. Morrell began reproachfully to chide him with
+lack of diligence.
+
+"I've been waiting just _rooted_ to this spot!" she said truthfully.
+
+"Shall we dance?" suggested the unfortunate young man.
+
+"It's nearly over," replied Mrs. Morrell carelessly. "Do sit down with
+us. Get yourself something to drink. _Don't go!_" she commanded Keith
+fiercely under her breath.
+
+At the beginning of the fourth dance, however, her next partner found
+her and led her away. She "made a face" over her shoulder at Keith.
+
+When a woman makes up her mind to monopolize a man who has not acquired
+the fine arts of rudeness and escape she generally succeeds. Keith's
+cordial nature was incapable of rudeness. Besides, being a perfectly
+normal man, and Mrs. Morrell experienced and attractive, he liked being
+monopolized. It crossed his mind once or twice that he might be in for
+a scolding when he got home. Nan might be absurd. But he was so secure
+in his essential loyalty to Nan that his present conduct was more in
+the nature of a delightfully naughty escapade than anything else. He
+stole the apples now, and later would go dutifully for his licking. Men
+of Keith's nature are easily held and managed by a wise woman, but the
+woman must be very wise. Keith loved celebrations. On the wings of an
+occasion he rose joyfully and readily to incredible altitudes of
+high-spirited but harmless recklessness. Birthdays, anniversaries, New
+Years, Christmas, arrivals, departures, he seized upon with rapture.
+Each had its appropriate ceremonial, its traditional drink, the
+painstaking brewing of which was a sacred rite. On such occasions he
+tossed aside the cloak of the everyday. A "celebration" meant that you
+were different. Humdrum life and habits must be relegated to the
+background. It was permitted that, unabashed, you be as silly, as
+frivolous, as inconsequential, as boisterous, as lighthearted, as
+delightfully irresponsible as your ordinary concealed boyishness
+pleased. Customary repressions had nothing to do here. This was a
+celebration! And in the aforementioned our very wise woman would have
+seen--a safety valve.
+
+Keith was off on a celebration to-night: an unpremeditated, freakish,
+impish, essentially harmless celebration, with a faint flavour of
+mischief in it because he had Nan in the back of his head all the time.
+He played up to Mrs. Morrell with exuberance, with honestly no thought
+except that he was having a whacking good time, and that old Nan was
+being teased. It was characteristic that for the time being he fell
+completely under Mrs. Morrell's fascination. They were together fully
+half the time, appearing on the floor only occasionally, then
+disappearing in one or the other of the many nooks. Mrs. Morrell
+"bolted" her dances shamelessly. Keith thought her awfully amusing and
+ingenious in the way she managed this. Sometimes they hid in
+out-of-the-way places. Sometimes she pretended to have mistaken the
+dance. "The sixth, are you very _sure_? I'm convinced it is only the
+fifth." Keith's conscience troubled him a little concerning the few
+names on his own card.
+
+"I have this with Mrs. Wilkins," said he. "I really ought to go and
+look her up."
+
+She took his card from him and deliberately tore it to small bits which
+she blew from the palm of her gloved hand. He protested in real dismay,
+but she looked him challengingly, recklessly, in the eye, until he
+laughed, too.
+
+All this was, of course, well noticed. Keith, again characteristically,
+had not taken into consideration the great public. Nan might have
+remained comparatively indifferent to Keith's philandering about for an
+evening with the Morrell creature--she had by now a dim but growing
+understanding of "celebrations"--but that he should deliberately
+neglect and insult her in the face of all San Francisco was too much.
+Her high, young enjoyment of the evening fell to ashes. She was
+furiously angry, but she was a thoroughbred. Only a heightened colour
+and a sparkling eye might have betrayed her to an astute woman.
+Observing her, Ben Sansome took heart. It was evident to him that the
+Keiths had long since reached an absolute indifference in their
+relations, that they lived the conventional, tolerant, separate lives
+of the majority of married couples in Ben Sansome's smart acquaintance.
+He ventured to apply himself more assiduously, and was by no means
+badly received.
+
+Keith remembered the next dance with his wife. He could not find her,
+although, a trifle conscience stricken, he searched everywhere. After
+the music had finished, she emerged from the dressing-room; the next
+time she could not be found at all. Evidently she was avoiding him with
+intention.
+
+Mrs. Sherwood, after each dance, returned invariably to the same chair
+near the middle of one wall. There, owing to the fact that the
+"respectables" withdrew from the chairs on either side, withdrew
+gradually and without open rudeness, she held centre of a little court
+of her own. This made of it a sort of post of observation from which
+she could review all that was going on. She had no lack of partners,
+for she danced wonderfully, and in looks was quite the most
+distinguished woman there. Keith's dance with her came and went, but no
+Keith appeared to claim it. Mrs. Sherwood smiled a little grimly, and
+her glance strayed down the wall opposite until it rested on Nan. She
+examined the girl speculatively. Nan was apparently completely absorbed
+in Ben Sansome; but there was in her manner something feverish, hectic,
+a mere nothing, which did not escape Mrs. Sherwood's keen eye.
+
+About midnight Sherwood appeared, and at once made his way to his
+wife's side. He was punctiliously dressed in the mode: a "swallowtail,"
+bright, soft silk tie of ample proportions, frilled linen, and
+sparkling studs. He bent with an old-world formality over his wife's
+hand. She swept away her skirts from the chair at her side, her eyes
+sparkling softly with pleasure.
+
+"You won't mind," she said carelessly to the young men surrounding her,
+"I want to talk to Jack for a minute."
+
+They arose, laughing a little.
+
+"That is your one fault, Mrs. Sherwood," said one, "you are altogether
+too fond of your husband."
+
+"Well, how are things going?" asked Sherwood, as they moved away.
+
+"I'm having a good time. But you're very late, Jack,"
+
+"I know--I wanted to come earlier. Everything all right?"
+
+At the question a little frown sketched itself on her clear brow.
+
+"In general, yes," she said. "But they've got that Lewis boy out in the
+bar filling him up on champagne."
+
+"That's a pity."
+
+"It's a burning shame!" said she, "And I'd like to shake young Keith.
+He's dangled after the Morrell woman from start to finish in a manner
+scandalous to behold."
+
+Sherwood laughed.
+
+"The 'Morrell woman' will do his education good," he remarked.
+
+"Well, she isn't doing that poor little Mrs. Keith's education any
+good," returned Mrs. Sherwood rather tartly.
+
+Sherwood surveyed Nan and Ben Sansome leisurely.
+
+"I must say she doesn't look crushed," he said, after a moment.
+
+"Do you expect her to weep violently?" asked Mrs. Sherwood.
+
+He accepted good naturedly the customary feminine scorn for the
+customary masculine obtuseness.
+
+"Well, I don't know that we can help it," said he, philosophically.
+
+Mrs. Sherwood appeared to come to a sudden resolution. She arose.
+
+"You go get that Lewis boy away from the bar," she commanded.
+
+Deliberately she shook and arranged her full skirts. The man with whom
+she had this dance, and who had been waiting dutifully for the
+conference to close, darted forward. She shook her head at him
+smilingly.
+
+"I'm going to let you off," she told him. "You won't mind. I have
+something extra special to do."
+
+She swept quite alone across the middle of the ballroom, serene,
+self-possessed; and walked directly toward Keith and Mrs.
+
+Morrell, who were seated together at the other end. A perceptible pause
+seemed to descend. The music kept on playing, couples kept on dancing,
+but, nevertheless, suddenly the air was charged with attention.
+Sherwood looked after her with mingled astonishment and fond pride.
+
+"A frontal attack, egad!" said he to himself.
+
+Keith and Mrs. Morrell pretended, as long as they decently could, not
+to see her. She swam leisurely toward them. Finally Keith arose
+hastily; Mrs. Morrell stared straight ahead.
+
+"Young man," accused Mrs. Sherwood, with a faint amusement in her rich,
+low voice, "do you know that this is our dance?"
+
+Keith excused his apparent lapse volubly, telling several times over
+that his program had been destroyed, that he was abject when he thought
+of the light this put him in.
+
+"It is only when angels like yourself condescend to reach me a helping
+hand that I have even a chance to right myself," he added. He thought
+this rather a good touch.
+
+Mrs. Sherwood stood before him easily, in perfect repose of manner, the
+half smile still sketching her lips. She said just nothing at all in
+response to his glib excuses; but when he had quite finished she laid
+her hand in his arm. Mrs. Morrell, her colour high, continued to stare
+straight ahead, immobile except for the tapping of one foot. To Keith's
+request to be excused she vouchsafed a stiff half nod, partly in his
+direction.
+
+They danced. Mrs. Sherwood, like most people who have command enough of
+their muscles to be able to keep them in graceful repose, danced
+marvellously well. When she stopped after a single turn of the room,
+Keith expostulated vigorously.
+
+"You are a perfect partner," he told her.
+
+"Take me in here and get me a sherbet," she commanded, without replying
+to his protests. "That's good," she said, when she had tasted it. "Now
+sit down and listen to me. You are making a perfect spectacle of
+yourself. Don't you know it?"
+
+Keith stiffened to an extreme formality.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" said he freezingly.
+
+"That may be your personal individual right"--went on Mrs. Sherwood's
+low, rich voice evenly. She was not even looking at him, but rather
+idly toward the open door into the ballroom. Her fan swung from one
+finger; every line of her body was relaxed. She might have been tossing
+him ordinary commonplaces from the surface of a detached mind--"making
+a spectacle of yourself," she explained; "but you're making a perfect
+spectacle of your wife as well--and in public. That is not your right
+at all."
+
+Keith sprang to his feet, furious.
+
+"You are meddling with what is really my own business, madam," said he.
+
+For the first time she looked up at him, dearly and steadily. In the
+eyes.
+
+"Very well. That is true. Stop a moment and think. Are you attending to
+your business yourself, even decently? Yes, I understand; you are angry
+with me. If I were a man, you would challenge me to a duel and all that
+sort of thing." She smiled indifferently. "Let's take that for granted
+and get on. Sweep it aside. You are man enough to do it, or I mistake
+you greatly. Look down into yourself for even one second. Are you
+playing fair all around? _Aren't you a little ashamed?_"
+
+She held him with, her clear, level gaze. His own did not fall before
+it, and his head went back, but slowly his face and neck turned red.
+Thus they stared at each other for a full half minute, she smiling
+slightly, perfectly cool; he seething with a suppressed emotion of some
+sort. Then she turned indolently away.
+
+"You're too fine to do things like that," she said, with a new softness
+in her voice; "we all have too much faith in you. The common tricks
+would not appeal to you, except in idleness; is it not so?"
+
+She smiled up at him, a little sidewise. Keith caught his breath. For a
+fleeting instant this extraordinary woman deigned to exert her feminine
+charms for the first time the coquette looked from her eyes; for the
+first time he saw mysteriously deep in her veiled nature a depth of
+possibility, of rich possibility--he could not grasp it--it was gone.
+But in spite of himself his pulses leaped like a flame. But now she was
+gazing again at the ballroom door, cool, indolent, aloof,
+unapproachable. Yet just at that instant, somehow, the other woman
+looked shallow, superficial, cold. His glance fell on Mrs. Morrell
+still sitting where he had left her. Something was wrong with her
+effect----
+
+Analysis was submerged in a blaze of anger. This anger was not now
+against the woman before him; his instinct prevented that. Nor against
+Mrs. Morrell nor his wife; reluctant justice prevented that. Nor
+against himself--where it really belonged. Things were out of joint; he
+felt cross-grained and ugly. Mrs. Sherwood rose.
+
+"You may take me back now," said she.
+
+As they glided across the floor together, her small sleek head came
+just above his shoulder. No embarrassment disturbed her manner. Keith
+could not find in him a spark of resentment against her. She moved by
+his side with an air of poise and detachment as a woman whose mind had
+long since weighed and settled the affairs of her own cosmos so that
+trifles could not disturb her.
+
+Leaving her in her accustomed chair, where Sherwood waited, Keith
+loyally returned to Mrs. Morrell, who still sat alone. Subconsciously
+he noticed something wrong with Mrs. Morrell. Her gowning was indeed
+rather a conspicuous effort than an artistic success. She had badly
+torn her dress--perhaps that was it.
+
+Mrs. Morrell received him with every appearance of sympathy.
+
+"You poor thing!" she cried. "What a fearful situation! Of course I
+know you couldn't help it."
+
+But Keith was grumpy and monosyllabic. He refused to discuss the
+situation or Mrs. Sherwood, returning with an obvious effort to
+commonplaces. Mrs. Morrell exerted all her fascination to get him back
+to the former level. A little cold imp sat in the back of Keith's brain
+and criticised sardonically; Why will big women persist in being
+kittenish? Why doesn't she mend that awful rent, it's fairly sloppy!
+Suppose she thinks that kind of talk is funny! I _do_ wish she wouldn't
+laugh in that shrill, cackling fashion! In short, the very tricks that
+an hour ago were jolly and amusing were now tiresome. Having been
+distrait, ungallant, masculinely put out for another fifteen minutes,
+he abruptly excused himself, sought out Nan, and went home.
+
+From her point of observation, Mrs. Sherwood watched them go. Nan
+looked very tired, and every line of Keith's figure expressed a grumpy
+moroseness.
+
+"Congratulations," said Sherwood.
+
+"He certainly is a child of nature," returned his wife. "Look at him!
+He is cross, so he _looks_ cross. That this is a ballroom and that all
+San Francisco is present is a mere detail."
+
+"How did you break it up?" asked Sherwood curiously.
+
+"Men are so utterly ridiculous! He had built up a lot of illusions for
+himself, but his instincts are true and good. It needed only a touch.
+It was absurdly simple."
+
+"He'll go back to the Morrell to-morrow," asserted Sherwood confidently.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Not to her. He _sees_ her now. And not to-morrow. But eventually to
+somebody, perhaps. He has curly hair."
+
+Sherwood laughed.
+
+"Shear him, like Sampson," he suggested. "But it strikes me he has
+about the most attractive woman--bar one--in town right at home."
+
+"She'd have no trouble in holding him if she were only _awake_. But
+she's only a dear little child--and about as helpless. She has very
+little subtlety. I'm afraid she'll follow the instincts of her
+training. She'll be too proud to do anything herself to attract her
+husband, once his attentions to her seem to drop off. She'll just
+become cold and proud--and perhaps eventually turn elsewhere."
+
+"I don't believe she's a bit that kind," asserted Sherwood positively.
+
+"Nor do I. But, Jack, a woman lonely enough has fancies, that in the
+long run may become convictions."
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+
+Mrs. Sherwood was completely right. Keith had _seen_ Mrs. Morrell. The
+glamour had fallen from her at a touch. He did not in the least
+understand how this had happened, and considered that it was his own
+fault. Mrs. Morrell had not changed in the least, but he had, somehow.
+He looked upon himself as fickle, disloyal, altogether despicable. Yet
+for the life of him he could not get up the slightest spark of
+enthusiasm for musical evenings, Sunday night suppers, or week-end
+excursions into the country. They had fallen dead to his taste; and
+with the sudden revolt to which such temperaments as his are subject,
+he could not bear even the thought of them without a feeling of
+incipient boredom. The blow administered to his self-respect put him
+quite out of conceit with himself and the world in general. If he had
+followed his natural instinct, he would instanter have thrown,
+overboard all the Morrell episode, bag and baggage.
+
+But that was, of course, impossible. Keith felt his obligations; he was
+a man of honour; he had respect for the feelings of others; he could
+not make friendly people the victims of his own outrageous freaks. That
+was out of the question!
+
+Mrs. Morrell sent for him. She had been puzzled by the episode of the
+evening before. It would have been absolutely incredible to her that a
+hundred words from a woman who was not her rival could have destroyed
+her influence over this man. She had considerable knowledge of men, and
+she had played her cards carefully. But she realized that something was
+the matter; and she thought that the time had come to use the power she
+had gained. A note dispatched by the Chinaman would do.
+
+Keith obeyed the summons. He knew himself well enough to realize that
+the intimacy, such as it was, must come to a pretty abrupt termination.
+Otherwise, he would shortly get very bored; and when he got very bored
+he became, in spite of himself, reserved and self-contained to the
+point of rudeness. For the exact reason that he saw thus clearly, his
+conscience was smiting him hard. Mrs. Morrell had done nothing to
+deserve this treatment. He was a dastard, a coward, ashamed of himself.
+If she wanted to see him, it was her due that he obey her summons
+promptly. He went with the vague idea of making amends by doing
+whatever she seemed to require--for this once.
+
+She entered the dim sitting-room clad in a flowing silken negligee,
+which she excused on the ground of laziness.
+
+"I'm still a little tired from last night," she said, with a laugh.
+
+The soft material and informal cut clung to and defined the lines of
+her figure, showing to especial advantage the long sweep of her hips,
+the pliancy of her waist, the swell of her fine bust. A soft lilac
+colour set off the glint of her fair hair. She was, in fact, feeling a
+little languid from the reaction of the ball and in a sudden rush of
+emotion she admired Keith's crisp freshness. Her eyes swam a little and
+her breast heaved.
+
+But the preliminary conversation went by jerks. Keith answered her
+advances with an effort toward ease and cordiality, but with a guarded,
+unnatural manner that sent a sudden premonitory chill to the woman's
+heart. Her instinct warned her. As the minutes passed, her uneasiness
+grew to the point of fear. Was she losing him? Why? This was no time
+for ordinary methods.
+
+She arose and went to sit by his side.
+
+"What's the matter, dear?" she asked.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Why are you acting in this manner? What have I done?"
+
+"I'm not; you haven't done anything--of course."
+
+She suddenly leaned forward, looking into his eyes, projecting all the
+force of her magnetism. She had before seen him respond, felt him
+quiver to her tentative, mischievous advances.
+
+"Kiss me," she breathed.
+
+Poor Keith was having a miserable enough time. He clung to his first
+thought--that this evening was her due, that he was in some way bound,
+in ending everything, to pay whatever coin he had left. He obeyed her,
+touching her lips lightly and coldly with his own. Never was chaster
+caress bestowed on melting mood!
+
+She flung him violently aside, her face writhing and contorted with
+fury. She was enlightened, completely, as she could have been
+enlightened in no other manner.
+
+"You can go!" she cried hoarsely. "Get out! Don't dare enter this house
+again!"
+
+He made some sort of spiritless, feeble protest, trying his best to put
+some convincing quality into it. But she did not even listen. The
+ungoverned tiger-cat part of her nature was in the ascendant, the
+fierce pride of the woman living near the edge of the half-world. She
+would gladly have killed him. At length he went, very confused,
+bewildered, miserable--and relieved! He left behind him a bitter enemy.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+
+In complete revulsion, Keith scuttled the frivolous world of women. As
+he expressed it, he was sick of women. They made him tired. Too much
+fuss trying to keep even with their vagaries. A man liked something he
+could bite on. He plunged with all the enthusiasm and energy of his
+vivid personality into his business deal of the water lots and into the
+fascinating downtown life of the pioneer city. The mere fact that he
+had ended that asinine Morrell affair somehow made him think he had
+made it all up to Nan, and he settled back tacitly and without further
+preliminaries into what his mood considered a most satisfactory
+domestic basis. That is, he took his home and his home life for
+granted. It was there when he needed it. He admired Nan greatly, and
+supplied her with plenty of money, and took her to places when he could
+get the time. Some day, when things were not quite so lively, they
+would go somewhere together. In the meantime he never failed to ask her
+every evening if she had enjoyed herself that day; and she never failed
+to reply that she had. Everything was most comfortable.
+
+After the Firemen's Ball Nan, somehow relieved of any definite
+uneasiness, felt that she should be made much of, should be a little
+wooed, that Keith should make up a little for having been somewhat of a
+naughty boy. When, instead, she was left more alone than before, she
+was hurt and depressed. Of course, Milton did not realize--but what was
+there for her? Wing Sam ran the house; she worked a good deal in the
+garden, assisted by Gringo. Probably at no time in modern history have
+wives been left so much alone and so free as during this period. The
+man's world was so absorbing; the woman's so empty.
+
+Ben Sansome dropped in quite often. He was always amusing, always
+agreeable, interested in all sorts of things, ready to give his
+undivided attention to any sort of a problem, no matter how trivial, to
+consider it attentively, and to find for it a fair and square
+deliberate solution. This is exceedingly comforting to the feminine
+mind. He taught Gringo not to "jump up"; he found out what was the
+matter with the _Gold of Ophir_ cutting; he discovered and took her to
+see just the shade of hangings she had long sought for the blue room.
+Within a very short time he had established himself on the footing of
+the casual old-time caller, happening by, dropping in, commenting and
+advising detachedly, drifting on again before his little visit had
+assumed rememberable proportions. He had always the air of just leaning
+over the fence for a moment's chat; yet he contrived to spend the most
+of an afternoon. He spoke of Keith often, always in affectionate terms,
+as of a sort of pal, much as though he and Nan _both_ owned him, he, of
+course, in a lesser degree.
+
+One afternoon, after he had actually been digging away at a bulb bed
+for half an hour, Nan suggested that he come in for refreshment.
+Gradually this became a habit. Sansome and Nan sat cozily either side
+the little Chinese tea table. He visibly luxuriated.
+
+"You don't know what a privilege this is for me--for any lonesome
+bachelor in this crude city--to have a home like this to come to
+occasionally."
+
+He hinted at his situation, but made of its details a dark mystery. The
+final impression was one of surface lightness and gayety, but of inner
+sadness.
+
+"It is a terrible city for a man without an anchor!" he said. "Keith is
+a lucky fellow! If I only had some one, as he has, I might amount to
+something." A gesture implied what a discouraged butterfly sort of
+person he really was.
+
+"You ought to marry," said Nan gently.
+
+"Marry!" he cried. "Dear lady, whom? Where in this awful mixture they
+call society could one find a woman to marry?"
+
+"There are plenty of nice women here," chided Nan.
+
+"Yes--and all of them taken by luckier fellows! You wouldn't have me
+marry Sally Warner, would you--or any of the other half-dozen Sally
+Warners? I might as well marry a gas chandelier, a grand piano, and a
+code of immorals--but the standard of such women is so different from
+the standard of women like yourself."
+
+Nan might pertinently have inquired what Ben Sansome did in this
+gallery, anyhow; but so cold-blooded and direct an attack would have
+required a cool detachment incompatible with his dark, good looks, his
+winning, appealing manners, his thoughtfulness in little things, his
+almost helpless reliance on her sympathy; in other words, it
+presupposed a rather cynical, elderly person. And Nan was young,
+romantic, easily stirred.
+
+"All you need is to believe in yourself a little more," she said
+earnestly and prettily. "Why don't you undertake something instead of
+drifting? Some of the people you go with are not especially good for
+you--do you think so?"
+
+"Good for me?" he laughed bitterly. "Who cares if I go to the dogs?
+They'd rather like me to; it would keep them company! And I don't know
+that I care much myself!" he muttered in a lower tone.
+
+She leaned forward, distressed, her eyes shining with expostulation.
+
+"You mustn't hold yourself so low," she told him vehemently. "You
+mustn't! There are a great many people who believe in you. For their
+sake you should try. If you would only be just a little bit serious--in
+regard to yourself, I mean. A gay life is all very well----"
+
+"Gay?" he interrupted, then caught himself. "Yes, I suppose I do seem
+gay--God knows I try not to cry out--but, really, sometimes I'm near to
+ending it all----"
+
+She was excited to a panic of negation.
+
+"Oh, no! no!" she expostulated vehemently. ("Egad, she's stunning when
+she's aroused!" thought Sansome.) "You mustn't talk like that! It isn't
+fair to yourself; it isn't fair to your manhood! Oh, how you do need
+some one to pull you up! If I could only help!"
+
+He raised his head and looked directly at her, his dark, melancholy
+eyes lighting slowly.
+
+"You have helped; you are helping," he murmured. "I suppose I have been
+weak and a coward, I will try."
+
+"That's right. I am so glad," she said, glowing with sweetness and a
+desire to aid. "Now you must turn over a new leaf," she hesitated.
+"Every way, I mean," she added with a little blush.
+
+"I know I drink more than I ought," he supplied in accents of regret.
+
+"Don't you suppose you could do without?" she begged very gently.
+
+"Will you help me?" He turned on her quickly; then, his delicate
+instincts perceiving a faint, instinctive recoil at his advance, he
+added: "Just let me come here occasionally, into this quiet atmosphere,
+when it gets too hard and I can see no light; just to get your help,
+the strength I shall need to tide me over."
+
+He looked very handsome and romantic and young. He was apparently very,
+deeply in earnest. Nan experienced a rash of pity, of protective
+maternal emotion.
+
+"Yes, do come," she assented softly.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+
+All this time Keith was busy every minute of the day. The water-lot
+matter was absorbing all his attention. Through skilful and secret
+agents Neil had acquired a great deal of scrip issued by the city for
+various public works and services which the holders had not yet
+exchanged for the new bonds. These he turned over to Keith. Very
+quietly, by prearrangement, the latter sued and obtained judgments.
+When all this had been fully accomplished--and not before then--the
+veil of secrecy was rent. Rowlee's paper advertised a forthcoming sale
+of water lots to satisfy the judgments.
+
+Then followed, for Keith, an anxious period of three days. But at the
+end of that time the commissioners issued a signed warning that the
+titles conveyed by this sale would not be considered legal. On seeing
+this, Keith at once rushed around to Neil's office.
+
+"Here it is," he announced jubilantly. "They held off so long that I
+began to be afraid they did not intend to play our game for us. But
+it's all right."
+
+The matter was widely discussed; but next morning placards, bearing the
+text of the commissioners' warning, were posted on every blank wall in
+town and distributed as dodgers. These were attributed by the public to
+zeal on the part of those officials; but the commissioners knew nothing
+about it.
+
+"Some anonymous friend of the city must have done it," Hooper told his
+friends, and added, "We are delighted!"
+
+The unknown friend was Malcolm Neil himself.
+
+This warning had its effect. As Keith had predicted, nobody cared to
+put good money into what was officially and authoritatively announced
+as a bad title. At the sheriff's sale there were no bona fide bidders
+except the secret agents of Malcolm Neil. The sheriff's titles--such as
+they were--went for a song. Immediately the ostensible purchasers were
+personally warned by the commission; but they seemed satisfied.
+
+So matters rested until, a little later, the commissioners inserted in
+all the papers the customary legal advertisements setting forth a sale
+by them, under the State law, of these same water lots to satisfy the
+interest and fill the sinking fund for the bonds. The next morning
+appeared a statement signed by all the ostensible purchasers under the
+sheriff's sale. This stated dearly and succinctly the intention to
+contest any titles given by the commissioners, even to the highest
+courts. This was marked _advt_, to indicate the newspaper's neutrality
+in the matter. Rowlee commented on the situation editorially, He took
+the righteous and indignant attitude, expressing extreme journalistic
+horror that such a hold-up should be possible in a modern, civilized
+community, hurling editorial contempt on the dastardly robbers who were
+thus intending to shake down the innocent purchasers, etc. In fact, he
+laid it on thick, But he managed to insinuate a doubt. Between the
+lines the least astute reader could read Rowlee's belief that perhaps
+these first purchasers might have a case, iniquitous but legal. He
+hammered away at this for a week. By the end of that time he had, by
+the most effective, indirect methods--purporting all the time to be
+attacking the signers of the warning--succeeded in instilling into the
+public mind a substantial distrust of the stability of the titles to be
+conveyed at the commissioners' sale. Malcolm Neil complimented him
+highly at their final and secret interview.
+
+Again Keith's predictions were fulfilled to the letter. Nobody wanted
+to buy a lawsuit. There were a few bidders, it is true, but they were
+faint hearted. Another set of Malcolm's secret agents bid all the lots
+in at a nominal figure. That very afternoon they all met in Neil's
+stuffy little back office. Keith had the deeds prepared. All that was
+necessary was to affix the signatures. The purchasers under both sales
+conveyed their rights to Neil and Keith. The latter now possessed
+uncontested and incontestable title.
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+
+Having personally delivered the deeds to the recorder's office, Keith
+went home. In the relief from pressure, the triumph, and the
+exaltation, his instinct carried him to the actual background of his
+life--his genuine but preoccupied affection for Nan. The constraint,
+that had been so real to her, had never been anything but nebulous to
+him.
+
+He burst into the house, capered around the room boyishly, seized her,
+and waltzed her gayly about. Quite taken by surprise, Nan's first
+thought was that he had been drinking too much; so naturally she failed
+to rise instantly to the occasion.
+
+"Stop it, Milton!" she cried. "What has got into you! You're tearing me
+to ribbons!"
+
+He laughed heartily.
+
+"You must think I'm crazy," he acknowledged. "Sit down here, and learn
+what a great man your husband is." He poured out the story of the
+transaction, omitting no details of the clever schemes by which it had
+been worked. He was, above all, proud of his legal address and
+acumen--there was something in Eastern training, after all; this lay
+right under their noses, but none of them saw it until he came along
+and picked it up. "And there are some pretty smart men out here, too,
+let me tell you that," he added. "They're from all parts of the world,
+and they've had a hard practical education, their eye teeth are cut!"
+His egotism over being keener than the acknowledged big men was very
+fresh and charming. The money gained he mentioned as an afterthought,
+only when the other aspect of the situation had been exhausted. "The
+cold hard dollars are pretty welcome just now," he told her. "There's
+about a quarter million in those lots--and we can realize on all or
+part of them at any time. All came out of here!" He tapped his
+forehead, and paused in his rapid pacing to and fro to look down at her
+In the easy chair, "We are well off now. We needn't scrimp and
+save"--it did not for the moment occur to him that they had not been
+doing so--"I'm going to get you eight new gowns, and twelve new hats,
+and a bushel of diamonds----"
+
+"I'm glad, very glad!" she cried, catching his enthusiasm, her mind for
+the first time occupying itself seriously with the mechanism of the
+deal. At first, when he had been explaining, she had not thrown off the
+impression that he had been drinking, and so had paid little attention
+to his explanations. "It sounds like magic. Tell me again--how you did
+it."
+
+Nothing loath, he went over it again, making clear the double clouding
+of the titles.
+
+But Nan, being much alone, had the habit, shared with few women of that
+time, of reading the newspapers. She had followed Rowlee's campaign,
+and she had taken seriously the editor's diatribes, Rowlee had been
+talking for effect. The ideals of ultimate civic honesty were yet fifty
+years in the future, but he had stumbled on their principle. Nan's
+mind, untrained in any business ethics, caught them; and her sure
+natural instincts had accepted their essential justice. In recognizing
+Milton's connection as promoter with just this deal, she was suddenly
+called upon to make adjustments for which there was no time. She knew
+Milton would do nothing wrong, and yet--he was waiting in triumph for
+her response.
+
+"It was very clever. And yet, somehow, it doesn't sound right--" she
+puzzled, "Are you sure it's honest?"
+
+"Honest?" he snorted, halted in mid-career, "Of course it's honest! Why
+isn't it honest?"
+
+Confronted with the direct question, she really did not know. She
+groped, proffering tentatively some of the arguments half remembered
+from Rowlee's editorial columns. But she confronted now a lawyer, sure
+of himself. Keith explosively, and contemptuously demolished her
+contentions. Everything was absolutely legal, every step of it. If a
+man hadn't a right to buy in property at any sale and sell it again
+where he wanted, where in thunder was our boasted liberty? Just the
+kind of fool notion women get! Keith in his honest pride and triumph
+had come for sympathy and admiration. Turned back on himself, he became
+vaguely resentful, and shortly left the house.
+
+Hardly had the front door closed after him when Nan burst into tears.
+She had not meant it to come out that way at all. Of course she had had
+no real thought that Milton would do anything dishonest; how absurd of
+him to take it that way! She had simply expressed a queer instinctive
+thought that had flashed across her mind; and now she could not for the
+life of her guess how she had come to do so. Miserably and passionately
+she realized that she had bungled it.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+
+But if Keith missed the appreciation of his triumph at home, he
+received full meed of it downtown. In a corner of the Empire a dozen of
+the biggest men in town were gathered. They were Sam Brannan; Palmer,
+of Palmer, Cook & Co.; Colonel E. D. Baker, the original
+"silver-tongued orator"; Dick Blatchford, the contractor; Judge Terry,
+of the Supreme Court; oily, coarse Ned McGowan; Nugent and Rowlee,
+editors, and some others. They were doing an exceedingly important part
+of their daily business: sipping their late afternoon cocktails.
+Calhoun Bennett joined them.
+
+"Little item of news to interest you-all," drawled the Southerner.
+"I've just come down from the recorder's office. The deeds for the
+water lots have just been recorded." He paused.
+
+"Have a drink, Cal," urged Dick Blatchford, "and sit down. What of it?"
+
+"They were recorded in the names of Malcolm Neil and young Keith. I'll
+have a cocktail."
+
+"That so? Pretty shaky title. Which sale did they record under?"
+
+"Both!" said Bennett.
+
+He stood until he saw that the significance of this had soaked in; then
+he drew out a chair and sat down. Ned McGowan chuckled hoarsely.
+
+"Pretty slick!" said he. "Wonder some of us didn't think of that! I
+suppose they went around and scared the purchasers until they got them,
+pretty cheap. Trust old Neil to drive a bargain!"
+
+But Palmer, the banker, who had been thinking, here spoke up:
+
+"The purchasers were undoubtedly their agents," he surmised quietly.
+
+"By God, you're right!" cried Terry. "Old Malcolm is certainly the
+devil without a tail!"
+
+"Speak of him and you get him," remarked Colonel Baker, pointing out
+Neil, who had just entered.
+
+They raised a shout at him, until finally the old man, reluctantly and
+crabbedly, sidled over to join them.
+
+"You're discovered, old fox!" cried Terry; "and the outraged dignity of
+the law demands a drink."
+
+They plied him with half-facetious, half-envious congratulations. But
+Neil would have none of them.
+
+"Not my scheme," he growled. "Entirely Keith's. I'm a sleeping partner
+only. He engineered it all, thought of it all, dragged me in."
+
+"You must have made a good thing out of it, Mr. Neil," suggested Palmer
+respectfully.
+
+The formidable old man eyed the speaker grumpily for a moment.
+
+"About a quarter million, cool, between us," he vouchsafed finally. He
+was, for some reason, willing to brag a bit.
+
+This statement was received in admiring silence by all but Terry.
+Everybody but that devil-may-care and lawless pillar of the law was
+afraid of Neil. But Terry would joke with anybody.
+
+"I hope you're going to let him have a little of it, Neil," he laughed.
+
+The old man shifted his eyes from Palmer to Terry with much the air of
+restraining heavy guns. Terry met the impact untroubled.
+
+"Judge," grunted the financier at last, "that young man will get his
+due share. He has tied me up in a contract that even your honoured
+court would find difficulty in breaking."
+
+With this parting shot he arose and stumped out.
+
+"If Malcolm Neil acknowledges he is tied up," observed Terry, who had
+not been in the slightest degree disturbed, "he is certainly tied up!"
+
+"Consider the man who tied him," begged Colonel Baker. "He must, in the
+language of the poets, be a lallapaloozer."
+
+"He's worth getting hold of," said Dick Blatchford.
+
+Therefore, when, a little later, Keith appeared, he was hailed
+jovially, and invited to drink. Everybody was very cordial. Within five
+minutes he was hail fellow with them all, joking with the most august
+of them on terms of equality. Judge Terry, in whose court he had stood
+abashed, plied him with cocktails; Colonel Baker told several stories,
+one of which was new; Sam Brannan, with the mixture of coarseness,
+overbearing manners, and fascination that made him personally
+attractive to men and some women, called him "my boy"; and the rest of
+the party had whole-heartedly taken him in and were treating him as one
+of themselves. Keith had known all these men, of course, but they had
+been several cuts above him in importance, and his relations with most
+of them had been formal. His whole being glowed and expanded. After the
+first cocktail or two, and after a little of this grateful petting, he
+had some difficulty in keeping himself from getting too expansive, in
+holding himself down to becoming modesty, in not talking too much. He
+quite realized the meaning of this sudden cordiality; but he welcomed
+it as another endorsement, from the highest, most unimpeachable
+sources, of his cleverness and legal acumen.
+
+They drank and talked until twilight. Then Keith began to make his
+excuses. They shouted him down.
+
+"You're going to dinner with us, my son," stated Brannan. "They've
+opened an oyster palace down the street, and we're going to sample it."
+
+"But my wife--" began Keith.
+
+"Permit me," interrupted Terry, bending his tall form in courtesy. "I
+am about to dispatch a messenger to Mrs. Terry, and shall be pleased to
+instruct him to call at your mansion also."
+
+It was so arranged. Immediately they adjourned to the new "Oyster
+Palace," a very gaudy white and gilt monstrosity with mirrors and negro
+minstrels. There were small private rooms, it seemed, and one of these
+was bespoken from the smiling manager, flattered at the patronage of
+these substantial men.
+
+San Francisco lived high in those days. It could pay, and for pay the
+best will go anywhere. The dinner was quite perfect. There were more
+cocktails and champagne. Under the influence of good fellowship and
+drinks, Keith was finally prevailed upon to give the details of the
+whole transaction. Perhaps this was a little indiscreet, but he was
+carried away by the occasion. The noisy crowd suddenly became quiet,
+and listened with the deepest attention. When Keith had finished, there
+ensued a short silence. Then Judge Terry delivered his opinion.
+
+"Sound as a dollar," he pronounced at last. "Not a hole in it. Is that
+your opinion, Colonel Baker?"
+
+"Clever piece of work," nodded the orator gravely. After this interim
+of sobriety the dinner proceeded more and more noisily. The drink
+affected the different men in different ways. A flush appeared high on
+the cheek bones of Terry's lean face and an added dignity in his
+courtly manner. Brannan became louder and more positive. On Blatchford
+his potations had no appreciable effect except that his round face grew
+redder. Ned McGowan dropped even his veneer of good breeding, became
+foul mouthed and profane, full of unpublishable reminiscence to which
+nobody paid any particular attention. Calhoun Bennett's speech became
+softer, more deliberate, more consciously Southern. Keith, who was
+really most unaccustomed to the heavy drinking then in vogue, was
+filled with a warm and friendly feeling toward everybody. His thoughts
+were a bit vague, and he had difficulty in focussing his mind sharply.
+The lights were very bright, and the room warm.
+
+Suddenly they were all in the open air under the stars. There seemed to
+have been an unexplained interim. Everybody was smoking cigars. Keith
+was tugging at his pocket and expostulating something about
+payment--something to do with the dinner. Evidently some part of him
+had gone on talking and thinking. The fresh air brought him back to the
+command. Various suggestions were being proffered. Blatchford was for
+hiring rigs and driving out to the Mission; Calhoun Bennett suggested
+the El Dorado; but Sam Brannan's bull voice decided them.
+
+"I'm going to Belle's!" he roared, and at once started off up the
+street. The idea was received with acclamation. They straggled up the
+street toward the residential portion of town.
+
+Keith followed. The delayed action of the drink had thrown him into a
+delicious whirling haze. He felt that he could be completely master of
+himself at any moment merely by making the effort; only it did not at
+present seem worth while. He knew where Belle's was: it was the ornate
+house diagonally across the street from his own, the one concerning
+which the clerk had been so evasive when they were house hunting.
+
+Belle's was a three-story frame building, differing in no outward
+essential from the fashionable residences around it. On warm evenings
+there sometimes came through the opened windows the sound of a piano,
+the clink of glasses, loud laughter or singing. The chance bystander
+might have heard identically the same from any other house in the
+neighbourhood. Only Belle's occasionally--rarely
+occasionally--contributed a crash or an oath. Such things were,
+however, quickly hushed. Belle's was run on respectable lines. Men went
+in and out quite openly, with the tolerance of most, but to the scandal
+of a few. Those curious, consulting the yellowed files of the
+newspapers, can read little protests--signed with _nom de plumes_--from
+young women, complaining that young men of their acquaintance, after
+calling decorously on them, would cross quite openly to the house over
+the way. Yet they were powerless, for a year or so at least, to break
+up the custom.
+
+For Belle's was a carry-over from the 49-51 days when of social life
+there was none at all. It differed from the merely disreputable house.
+Belle prided herself on quiet conduct and many friends. In person she
+was a middle-aged, still attractive Frenchwoman. She had furnished her
+parlours very elaborately, and she insisted that both her employees and
+clients should behave in the public rooms with the greatest
+circumspection.
+
+Indeed, a casual visitor, unacquainted with the character of the place,
+might well have been deceived. The women sitting about were made up and
+very decollete, to be sure, but their conduct, while not always of the
+highest tone, was nevertheless quite devoid of freedom. Belle permitted
+no overt word or action; nor was any visitor subjected to another
+expectation than the occasional opening of a bottle of wine "for the
+good of the house."
+
+But outside of the one fundamental rule of decency, the caller could
+make himself comfortable in his own way. He could lounge, pound the
+piano, joke, play games, smoke where he pleased, and enjoy what was
+then a rarity--the company and conversation of nimble-witted,
+well-dressed, beautiful women whose ideas were not narrow. Ultimate
+possibilities were always kept very much in the background, but that
+there were possibilities made for present relaxation or freedom.
+
+Twice a year Belle was in the habit of giving a grand party. The
+invitations were engraved. Entertainment was on a sumptuous scale.
+There were dancing, all sorts of card games, an elaborate supper, the
+best of music, often professional entertainers of great merit.
+Everything was free except wine. Nearly the whole masculine population
+turned out for Belle's big party--judges, legislators, bankers,
+merchants, as well as the professional politicians and the gamblers.
+The most prominent men of the city frequented Belle's at other times
+openly, without fear of public opinion--many of them merely for the
+sense of freedom and relaxation they there enjoyed. Everybody was
+welcome.
+
+Keith, however, knowing the character of the place, had never been
+inside its doors. Now, enveloped in his rosy haze, exceedingly
+contented with his company, he followed where they led. At the door a
+neat coloured maid relieved him of his hat and coat, and smiled a
+welcome. His dazzled vision took in a long drawing-room, soft red
+carpets, red brocade curtains of heavy material, with edges of gold
+fringe and with gold cords, chandeliers of many dangling prisms, a
+white marble mantel, a grand piano, a few pictures of the nude, and
+many chairs. Ravishingly beautiful, wonderfully dressed women sat about
+in indolent attitudes.
+
+The hilarious party at once scattered through the room, Calhoun Bennett
+went to the piano and began to play sentimental airs. Ned McGowan, his
+face very red, enthroned himself in an easy chair, clasping girls who
+perched on either arm. He talked to them in a low voice. They leaned
+over to hear, and every moment or so they burst into shrieks of
+laughter. Judge Terry was listening intently to some serious
+communication Belle herself was making to him. Sam Brannan was roaring
+for champagne. The others were circulating here and there, talking,
+playing practical jokes. Altogether, to Keith's rosy vision, a
+colourful and delightful scene. Nobody paid him the least attention.
+
+How long he stood there he did not know. The groups before him shifted
+and changed confusedly. The lights seemed to blaze and to dim, and then
+to blaze again. After a long interval he became aware of a touch on his
+arm. He looked down. A piquant, dark-eyed, tilt-nosed girl was smiling
+up at him.
+
+"Wat you do?" she was begging. "You come wiz me?"
+
+He focussed his attention on the room. It was almost empty. He saw the
+back of Judge Terry disappearing into the street. He passed his hand
+across his eyes.
+
+"Where are the others?" he asked confusedly.
+
+She laughed with significance. He looked down at her again. Her
+complexion was a sort of dead white, her lips were red and glistening,
+her eyes were darkened. He turned suddenly and left the house. The
+coloured maid, disappointed in a tip, stood in the doorway, his hat and
+coat in her hands, staring after him. The cool air a little cleared his
+brain. He stopped short in the middle of the street, trying to collect
+himself.
+
+"I'm drunk," he solved finally, and proceeded very carefully toward his
+own house. After each dozen steps he paused to collect his thoughts
+before proceeding. In one of these pauses he distinctly heard a window
+slam shut; there were plenty of louder things, he heard only the
+window. He hadn't the least idea of the time of night, except that it
+must be very late. As a matter of fact, it was not more than half-past
+ten. Near his own gate he nearly ran into a woman strolling. With some
+instinct of apology, he turned in her direction. As his bare head was
+revealed in the dim light, the woman uttered a low laugh.
+
+"And was Belle as charming as ever?" demanded Mrs. Morrell sweetly but
+icily. "Go in carefully now, so dear little wifey won't know."
+
+She laughed again and moved past him. He stared after her with a vague
+sense of injustice, somehow; then went on.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+
+Keith was sorry next morning, but he was not repentant, in the sense of
+feeling that he had done anything fatally wrong. He was disgusted with
+himself. He wasted no regrets, but did register a very definite
+intention not to let _that_ happen again! It was all harmless enough,
+once in a way, but it was not his sort of thing. Nan would not
+understand it a bit--why should she? His head ached, and he was feeling
+a little conscience-stricken about Nan, anyway. He must take her around
+more, see more of her. Business had been very absorbing lately, but now
+that this deal had been brought off successfully, it was only due her
+and himself that he take a little time off. In his present mood he
+convinced himself, as do most American business or professional men,
+that he was being driven in his work, and that he wanted nothing better
+than a let-up from the grind. As a matter of fact, he--and they--love
+their work.
+
+In this frame of mind he started downtown, rather late. On the street
+he met a number of his friends. A good many of them chaffed him
+good-naturedly about the night before. By the time he reached his
+office he was feeling much better. Things were assuming more of an
+everyday comfortable aspect. He had not been seated ten minutes before
+Dick Blatchford drifted in, smoking a black cigar that gave Keith a
+slight qualmish feeling. Dick seemed quite unaffected by the evening
+before.
+
+"Hullo, Milt!" he boomed, rolling his heavy form into a chair, his
+round, red face beaming. "How's the wild Injin this morning? Say,
+you're a wonder when you get started! You needn't deny it; wasn't I
+there?" He shook his head, chuckling fatly. "Look here," he went on,
+"I'm busy this morning--got to get down to North Beach to see Harry
+Meigs--and I guess you are." He tossed over a package of papers that he
+produced from an inside pocket. "Look those over at your leisure. I
+think we better sue the sons of guns. Let me know what you think." He
+fished about in a tight-drawn waistcoat pocket with a chubby thumb and
+forefinger, pulled out a strip of paper, and flipped it to Keith as
+casually as though it were a cigarette paper. "There's a little
+something as a retainer," said he. "Well, be good!"
+
+After he had lumbered out, Keith examined the check. It was for one
+thousand dollars. If anything were needed to restore his entire
+confidence in himself, this retainer would have sufficed. The little
+spree was regrettable, of course, but it had brought him a client--and
+a good one!
+
+Two days later Keith, who now had reason to spend more time in his
+office, received another and less welcome visitor: this was Morrell.
+The young Englishman, his clean-cut face composed to wooden immobility,
+his too-close-set eyes squinting watchfully, came in as though on a
+social call.
+
+"Just dropped around to look at your diggin's," he told the surprised
+Keith. "Not badly fixed here; good light and all.".
+
+He accepted a cigar, and sat for some moments, his hat and stick
+carefully disposed on his knees.
+
+"Look here, Keith," he broke into a desultory chat after a few minutes.
+"Deucedly awkward, and all that, of course; but I've been wondering
+whether you would, be willing to tide me over--remittances late, and
+all that sort of thing. Stony for the moment. Everything lovely when
+the mails arrive. Neighbours, see a lot of each other, and that sort,
+you know."
+
+Keith was totally unprepared for this, and floundered. Morrell,
+watching him calmly, went on:
+
+"Of course I wouldn't think of coming to you, old chap--plenty of
+people glad to bank for me temporarily--but I wanted you to know just
+how we stand--Mrs. Morrell and I--that we feel friendly to you, and all
+that sort of thing, you know! You can rely on us--no uneasiness, you
+know."
+
+"Why, that's very kind of you," returned Keith, puzzled.
+
+"Not a bit! The way I looked at it was that a chap wouldn't borrow from
+a man he wasn't friendly with, it isn't done." He laughed his high,
+cackling laugh, "So I said to Mimi, 'the dear man must be worryin' his
+head off.' It was lucky for you, old top, that a woman of the world
+with some sense saw you the other night instead of some feather-headed
+gossipin' fool. But Mimi's not that."
+
+Keith was slowly beginning to suspect, but as yet he considered his
+suspicion unjust.
+
+"How much do you need?" he asked,
+
+"Five hundred dollars," replied Morrell coolly.
+
+"I doubt I have that sum free in ready cash."
+
+Morrell looked him in the eye.
+
+"I fancy you will be able to raise it," he said very deliberately.
+
+The men looked at each other.
+
+"This is blackmail, then," said Keith without excitement.
+
+Morrell became very stiff and English in manner.
+
+"Words do not frighten me, sir. This is a personal loan. It is an
+action between friends, just as my silence on the subject of your
+peccadillo is a friendly action. I mention that silence, not as a
+threat, but as an evidence of my own friendly feeling. I see I have
+made a mistake."
+
+He arose, his bearing very frigid. Keith was naturally not in the least
+deceived by this assumption of injured innocence, but he had been
+thinking.
+
+"Hold on!" he said. "You must forgive my being startled; and you must
+admit you were a little unfortunate in your presentation. For this
+loan, what security?"
+
+"My personal note," replied Morrell calmly.
+
+"I must look into my resources. I will let you know to-morrow."
+
+"Not later than to-morrow. I'll call at this hour," said Morrell with
+meaning.
+
+After the Englishman had gone Keith considered the matter at leisure.
+Although of a sanguine and excitable temperament When only little
+things were involved, he was clear headed and uninfluenced by personal
+feeling in real emergencies.
+
+First, would the Morrells carry out the implied threat? His instinct
+supplied that answer. Of Morrell himself he had never had any trust.
+Now he remembered what had never really struck him before: that
+Morrell, even in this fast and loose society, had never been more than
+tolerated, and that, apparently, only because of the liveliness of his
+wife. He had the indefinable air of a bad 'un. And Keith's knowledge of
+women was broad enough to tell him that Mrs. Morrell would be
+relentless.
+
+Second, would a denial avail against their story? His commonsense told
+him that if the Morrells started this thing they would carry it through
+to a finish. There was no sense in it otherwise, for such an attack
+would mean the burning of most of their social bridges. Morrell could
+get witnesses from Belle's--say, the coloured maid whom he had not
+tipped--and there were his hat and coat.
+
+Third, could he afford to let them tell the tale? As far as his
+position in the city, either professionally or socially, most decidedly
+yes. But at home, as decidedly no. In her calmest, most judicial,
+trusting, loving mood, Nan could never understand. Her breeding and
+upbringing were against it. She could never comprehend the difference
+between such a place as Belle's and any disreputable house--if there
+was a difference. This point needed little argument.
+
+Then he must pay.
+
+Having definitely decided this, he repressed his natural inclinations
+toward anger, drew the money, laid it aside in his drawer, and went on
+with his work. When Morrell came, in next morning, very easy and
+debonair, he handed out the gold pieces and took in return the man's
+note, without relaxing the extreme gravity and formality of his manner.
+
+"Thanks, old chap!" cried Morrell. "You've saved my life. I won't
+forget." He paused; then cackled harshly: "Good joke that! No, _I
+won't_ forget!"
+
+Keith bowed coldly, waiting. Morrell, with, a final cackle, made
+leisurely for the door. As he laid his hand on the knob, Keith spoke:
+
+"By the way, Morrell."
+
+Morrell turned.
+
+"Take care you don't overdo this," advised Keith, very deliberately.
+
+Morrell examined him. Keith's face was grim. He smiled enigmatically.
+
+"Tact is a blessed gift, old top," said he, and went out.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+
+This whole episode proved to be a turning-point in Keith's career. His
+revulsion against the feminine--hence society--side of life brought
+about by the affair of Mrs. Morrell, might soon have passed, and he
+might soon have returned to the old round of picnics, excursions,
+dinners, and parties, were it not that coincidentally a new and
+absorbing occupation was thrust upon him. Dick Blatchford's case was
+only one of many that came to him. He became completely immersed in the
+fascinating intricacies of the law.
+
+As has been previously pointed out, nowhere before nor since has pure
+legality been made such a fetish. It was a game played by lawyers, not
+an attempt to get justice done. Since, in all criminal cases at least,
+the prosecution was carried on by one man and his associates, poorly
+paid and hence of mediocre ability, and the defence conducted by the
+keenest brains in the profession, it followed that convictions were
+rare. Homicide in various forms was little frowned upon. Duels were of
+frequent occurrence, and, in several instances, regular excursions,
+with tickets, were organized to see them. Street shootings of a more
+informal nature were too numerous to count. Invariably an attempt,
+generally successful, was made to arrest the homicide. If he had money,
+he hired the best lawyers, and rested secure. If he had no money, he
+disappeared for a time. Almost everybody had enough money, or enough
+friends with money, to adopt the former course. Of 1,200 murders--or
+"killings"--committed in the San Francisco of those days, there was
+just _one_ legal conviction!
+
+It was a point of professional pride with a lawyer to get his client
+free. Indeed, to fail would be equivalent to losing a very easy game.
+The whole battery of technical delays, demurrers, etc., was at his
+command; a much larger battery than even the absurd criminal courts of
+our present day can muster. Delays to allow the dispersal of witnesses
+were easily arranged for, as were changes of venue to courts either
+prejudiced in favour of the strict interpretation of "law" or frankly
+venal. Of shadier expedients, such as packing juries, there seemed no
+end.
+
+Your honourable, high-minded lawyers--which meant the well-dressed and
+prosperous--had nothing to do with such dirty work; that is, directly.
+There were plenty of lawyers not so honourable and high minded called
+in as "counsel." These little lawyers, shoulder strikers, bribe givers
+and takers, were held in good-humoured contempt by the legal stars--who
+employed them! Actual dishonesty was diluted through a number of men.
+Packing a jury was a fine art. Initially was needed connivance at the
+sheriff's office. Hence lawyers, as a class, were in politics. Neither
+the stellar lawyer nor the sheriff knew any of the details of the
+transaction. A sum of money went to the former's "counsel" as expenses,
+and emerged, considerably diminished, in the sheriff's office as
+"perquisites." It had gone from the counsel to somebody like Mex Ryan,
+from him to various plug-uglies, ward heelers, shoulder strikers, from
+them to one or another of the professional jurymen, and then on the
+upward curve through the sheriff's underlings who made out the jury
+lists to Webb himself. The thing was done.
+
+In this tortuous way many influences were needed. The most honest
+lawyer's limit as to the queer things he would do depended on his
+individual conscience. It is extraordinary what long training and the
+moral support of a whole profession will do toward educating a
+conscience. Do not despise unduly the lawyers of that day. We have all
+of us good friends in the legal profession who will defend in court a
+criminal they know to be guilty as charged. They will urge that no man
+should go undefended; and will argue themselves into a belief that in
+such a case "defence" means not merely fair play, but a desperate
+effort to get him off anyhow--trained conscience. If such sophistries
+are sincerely believed by honest men nowadays, it cannot be wondered at
+that queerer sophistries passed current in a community not five years
+old. It was difficult to draw the line between the men who mistakenly
+believed themselves honest and those who knew themselves dishonest.
+
+But once in politics there could be no end. In this field the law
+rubbed shoulders with big contracts, big operations. A city was being
+built, in a few years, out of nothing, by a busy, careless, and
+shifting population. The opportunities for making money on public
+works--either honestly or by jobbery--were almost unlimited. The mood
+of the times was extravagant. From the still unexhausted placers poured
+a flood of gold, hard money, tangible wealth; and a large percentage of
+it paused in San Francisco, changed hands before continuing its
+journey. Immigrants brought with them a lesser but still significant
+sum. Money was easy. People could and would pay high taxes without a
+thought, for they would rather pay well to be let alone than bother
+with public affairs. The city treasury should have been full to
+bursting. In addition, the municipality was rich in its real estate.
+The value of all land had gone up immensely; any time more cash was
+needed it could quickly be raised by the sale of public lots. The
+supply seemed inexhaustible.
+
+Like hyenas to a kill the public contractors gathered. Immense public
+works were undertaken at enormous prices. Paving, sewers, grading,
+filling, lighting, wharves, buildings Were all voted; and the work
+completed in the quickest, flimsiest, most slipshod fashion; and at
+terrible prices. The Graham House, a pretentious frail structure that
+had failed as a hotel because a swamp lay between it and the city, was
+bought at a huge price to serve as city hall. It was a veritable white
+elephant, and even the busy populace spared time to grumble at the
+flagrant steal. Nobody knew what it would cost to make the thing
+habitable even. Soon, to every one's relief, it burned down. The
+property was then swindled over to Peter Smith. The Jenny Lind Theatre,
+an impossible, ramshackle structure, was purchased over the vigorous
+protest of every decent citizen, for the enormous sum of $300,000.
+Another $100,000 was alleged to have been spent in remodelling and
+furnishing it. Then it was solemnly declared "unsuited to the purpose."
+It also burned down in one of the numerous fires. But the money was
+safe!
+
+To get such deals as these through "legally" it was of course necessary
+that officials, councilmen, engineers, etc., should be sympathetic.
+Naturally the big operators, as well as the big lawyers, had to go into
+politics. Elections came soon to be so many farces. In some wards no
+decent citizen dared show his face. "Shoulder strikers" were openly
+hired for purposes of intimidation. Bribery was scarcely concealed. And
+if things looked doubtful, there were always the election inspectors
+and judges in reserve who could be relied upon to make things come out
+right in the final count. The proper men were always returned as
+elected. If violence or fraud were alleged, lawyers always got the
+accused off in a strictly legal manner.
+
+In these matters, it must be repeated, no opprobrium ever rested on
+either the big lawyers or the big operators. "Expenses" went to the
+underlings, and after some mysterious subterranean manipulation, of
+which the big fellows remained blandly unconscious, results came back.
+
+In the world of public works Keith rapidly made himself a position. He
+was leading counsel for Dick Blatchford and one or two others. His job
+was to know all the rules of the game so well that there were no
+comebacks; to set the machinery in motion by which the contracts were
+procured; and to straighten out any irregularities that might arise
+afterward. His position was almost academic. The matters he fought and
+decided were so detached from actuality, as far as he was concerned,
+that they might have been hypothetical cases. When Dick wanted anything
+specific, Keith instructed Patsy Corrigan to see that the proper
+officials awarded the contract. If the matter ever came to the courts,
+Keith furnished the brains and Patsy somehow "saw" the sheriff and
+whoever was necessary from the mysterious underworld. Everybody was
+doing the same thing. In the minds of men profits of any sort were
+legitimate provided they were "legal," but especially against so vague
+an entity as a community. Civic consciousness had not been born in
+them, for the simple reason that the city was constituted perfectly to
+suit them. Only when men are dissatisfied with their government do they
+seek to become responsible for it. There was no active public opinion
+against them. Men were too busy to bother with such things.
+Occasionally a fairly vigorous protest against some peculiarly
+outrageous steal made itself heard, but the men who made it were either
+cranks or it was suspected they had been pinched in some way. They
+merely represented the opposition any active man expects.
+
+And every last one of these merry, jovial pirates was inordinately
+proud of the ship he was helping to scuttle! That one fact, attentively
+considered, explains much.
+
+The city was growing, it was taking on a permanent character. In spite
+of waste, shoddy work, and frequent fires, its vitality was triumphant.
+The sand hills had all been graded flat, and the material from them had
+filled in the water lots of the bay; miles of fireproof brick
+structures had been built on four or five streets; there were now a
+half score of long wharves instead of one; omnibuses ran everywhere;
+fine steamers plied to fashionable watering places about the bay; the
+planks in the streets were being replaced by cobblestones; telegraph
+service had been inaugurated to San Jose and Sacramento; several new
+theatres had been built; gas lamps were being placed about the streets;
+huge wooden palaces with much scrollwork ornamentation were being built
+on Stockton Street and the Rincon Hill. All these things, as well as
+the climate, the mines, the agricultural resources, the commerce, the
+scenery, were fully appreciated and enthusiastically made the most of
+by every mother's son. Any man among them was ready at a moment's
+notice to wax enthusiastic about the resources and the future of the
+place. They were "boosters" in the modern acceptation of the term.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+
+In this eager, fast-living, nervous, high-strung man's world Keith took
+to himself a prominent part. He was so fully-occupied in other
+directions that his practice did not lead him into criminal law, so he
+missed an influence that must have either ended by blunting or
+repelling him. He corresponded to what nowadays would be called a
+corporation lawyer. His clients were few, but wealthy, powerful, and
+remunerative; his cases were subtle and hard fought, He enjoyed the
+intricate game for its own sake, and he enjoyed his success in it. In
+the inevitable give and take of a complicated world he knew, of course,
+of shady doings beneath; but he was not personally involved; he
+accepted them as part of the make-up of society, human nature, the
+medium--of work.
+
+But Nan was necessarily left more and more to her own devices. And,
+further, she was left alone without even the preoccupation furnished
+her domestic side by such an affair as that with Mrs. Morrell. She knew
+that Keith was wholly absorbed in his business. She was loyal to his
+unexpressed idea that in these propitious beginnings he must devote all
+his energies to his career. She was loyal to his preoccupation. It was
+the only way in which she could help. And yet, without being given
+cause for grievance, she was temporarily thrust outside his life, put
+in cold storage, as it were, until she should be wanted. He bolted
+immediately after breakfast; often he did not come home to lunch; was
+quite likely to go out again in the evening.
+
+It followed that Nan had to make her own life out of the materials at
+hand. This was at first difficult, for all the materials were novel to
+her. Gradually, however, she fitted herself into the social
+transformation that was taking place.
+
+Heretofore, society had not existed. Now, vaguely, it was beginning to
+take coherence and form. A transition period was on. The "nobs" were
+evolving from chaos. People of the fast Morrell type were losing their
+influence and ascendency, were being pushed aside to the fringes by the
+more "solid" elements. Wealth and arrogant dignity were coming into
+their innings. Formal functions, often on an elaborate scale, were
+taking the place of the harum-scarum informal parties. There came up
+some questions of social leadership. In short, social life was
+developing into the usual game. Lacking other interests, Nan found it
+amused her to play at it, to contend with the leaders, to form
+alliances, to declare war, to assume by right and talent her place
+among the best.
+
+This pleased Keith. Social standing helped him in business; and he
+enjoyed the sight of his beautiful young wife queening it serenely over
+the city's best. He was always eager to advance money for new gowns or
+expensive parties. At first he went out with her, but soon found that
+three o'clock in the morning meant a next day's brain dulled of its
+keenest edge. But he would not hear of her staying at home on his
+account.
+
+"I'm tired, and I'm going to bed right away," he told her. "You go and
+uphold the splendour of the family. Get Ben to take you."
+
+Ben Sansome was to Keith a tremendous convenience. He was the only idle
+man in town, always on tap, ready to stay out any and every night until
+the cocks crowed. Why shouldn't he? He had nothing to do all next day,
+except, perhaps, to decide which stick he should carry! With a busy
+man's good-humoured contempt for the mere idler, Keith looked upon
+Sansome as a harmless household-pet sort of person; good natured,
+accommodating, pleasant to talk to, good looking, foppish in dress, but
+beneath any serious human being's notice. Sansome was on easy terms of
+intimacy with the Keiths. It was mighty good of him to look out for
+Nan. If he did not, Keith would have to.
+
+In this formative period Ben Sansome was, however, a very important
+figure in the woman's world. Social construction was a ticklish matter.
+There were so many things to be decided; small items of etiquette, the
+"proper thing"--procedure, decorations, good form, larger matters as to
+whether so-and-so should be received, and if so, how extensively. Ben
+Sansome was past master of such things. He was the only man in town who
+knew--or cared--how to "draw lines." He became truly a modern _arbiter
+elegantiarum_. For San Francisco had begun in real earnest to "draw
+lines."
+
+They were rather strange lines at times. Of course such people as the
+Brannans, Montgomerys, Terrys, Bushs, Bakers, Caldwells, and other "old
+families" (three or four years old), went without saying. Also were
+included the greater merchants and their feminine representatives, such
+as Palmer, Cook, Adams, Wilkins, and the like. Also there seemed to be
+a solid foundation of those respectable and powerful with plenty of
+wealth--"but hopeless, my dear, absolutely hopeless!" groaned some of
+the livelier members.
+
+Lightning struck capriciously at those on whom this new society might
+frown, on those who as lately as last year had ridden the crest of the
+wave. For example, it spared Sally Warner, with her spotted veils drawn
+close around her face, her red belts, and her red tufts on her small
+toques, but it blasted the Morrells. Mrs. Morrell clung tenaciously to
+the outskirts, but she knew only too well that she did not "belong." In
+her heart she ascribed this fact to Mrs. Keith. This was unjust, but it
+added to her bitterness against her neighbours.
+
+Perhaps her suspicions were not unnatural, for Nan won easily in this
+game. She was undoubtedly the social leader. It seemed eminently
+fitting that, lacking her husband, she should go out much with Ben
+Sansome. Most women thought her lucky to have acquired so valuable a
+social acquisition. Some people, like fat, coarse, sensible Mrs. Dick
+Blatchford, were a little doubtful.
+
+"Shucks!" snorted Sally Warner, slapping her little riding boot
+dashingly with her latest novelty, an English hunting crop, "Nan Keith
+impresses me as one who knows her way about. And, anyway, as long as
+Mr. Keith is satisfied, I'm sure we should be!"
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+
+To his surprise Ben Sansome found himself warming to what he considered
+a real passion. At least it was as real a passion as he was capable of
+feeling. Sansome had always been spoiled. Accustomed as he was to easy
+conquests, especially of late among the faster San Francisco women of
+the early days, Nan Keith's very aloofness attracted him. She dwelt in
+a serene atmosphere of unsuspicion, going about freely with him, taking
+their right relations for granted, and not thinking about them.
+Contemplating this, Sansome was clever enough to see that, a false move
+at the wrong time would do for him. Therefore, he occupied himself at
+first merely in making himself useful. He accepted Keith's role for
+him, becoming the friend of the family, dropping in often and
+informally, happening on the spot at just the right time to relieve
+Keith of the necessity of escorting Nan to this or that tea or ball. So
+well did he play his part that at last there came a time when Keith
+said:
+
+"I'm dead tired to-night, Nan. Seems as if I couldn't stand chatter.
+Can't you send a note around to Ben and see if he can't get you there
+and back?"
+
+This came to be a regular thing. If Sansome did not happen to be there,
+he was sent for. And his engagements were never such that he failed to
+accept.
+
+He and Keith called each other by their given names; but even after a
+close intimacy had been established, he never addressed Nan by hers.
+
+"You sound very formal," she hinted to him at last.
+
+"To me the privilege of calling you by your 'little name' is so great
+an evidence of friendship, that it actually seems like flaunting that
+friendship to call you so before others" he replied.
+
+Always after that he called her "Nan" when they were alone together,
+but "Mrs. Keith" when a third, even Keith himself, was present. In that
+way their tete-a-tetes were marked off a little. When alone with her he
+maintained the pose of one struggling manfully against tremendous
+temptations held back only by her sweet influence. But he never overdid
+it. As they came to know each other better, he talked ever the more
+freely of men's mysterious temptations. Nan could not define to herself
+exactly what they might be.
+
+"Yesterday I couldn't see you," he told her. "I struggled with myself
+all day. Good God, what does a woman like you know of a man's
+weaknesses and temptations--But I conquered."
+
+Nan was uneasy. She did not know quite what it was all about, but her
+instincts warned her.
+
+"I am glad," she replied; and went on hastily, "but you must tell me
+what you think about having the tea served in the arbour on the
+seventh, I've been dying to ask you."
+
+With an obvious effort to be cheerful about this fresh subject, he
+wrenched himself into a new mood. They consulted on the party for the
+seventh. He broke off abruptly to say: "Do you know you're an
+extraordinary person--but you are!" he overrode her protests. "Don't I
+know the ordinary kind? Women have a deep strength of their own that
+men cannot understand."
+
+He stayed only a few minutes after that. On parting he for the first
+time permitted himself a lingering gaze into her eyes as he reluctantly
+relinquished her hand. She turned away, distinctly uneasy. Yet so
+skilfully had he woven, his illusion of dependence on her that she
+shook it off with a tender and maternal smile.
+
+"Poor boy," she murmured. "He is so unhappy and alone!"
+
+Sansome was an accomplished equestrian. Finding that Nan knew nothing
+whatever about riding, he procured her a gentle horse, and took the
+greatest trouble and pleasure in teaching her. She proved apt, for she
+had good natural control of her body. After the first uncertainty and
+the first stiffness had worn off, she delighted in long rides toward
+different parts of the peninsula. Gringo, now a full-grown dog
+inclining toward the shepherd more than anything else, delighted in
+them, too. He ranged far and wide in front of the horses, exploring
+every ditch and thicket, wallowing happily in every mudhole, returning
+occasionally to roll his comical eyes at them as though to say, "Aren't
+we having a good time?" for Gringo was a dog with a sense of humour. On
+these excursions she renewed acquaintance with the sand dunes, and the
+little canyons with birds, and the broad beach at low tide on which it
+was glorious to gallop. Once or twice they even stopped at the little
+rancho where the Keiths had lunched. There Nan, through Sansome, who
+talked Spanish, was able to communicate with her kindly hosts; and
+Gringo met his honoured but rather snappy mother. The mother disowned
+him utterly. As the days grew shorter they often rode on the Presidio
+hills, watching the sun set beyond the Golden Gate.
+
+One such evening they had reined up their horses atop one of the hills
+next the Gate. The sun had set somewhere beyond the headlands.
+Tamalpais was deep pink with the glow; the water in the Gate was pale
+lilac; the sky close to the horizon burned orange, but above turned to
+a pale green that made with its lucent colour alone infinite depths and
+spaces. Below, the darker waters twisted and turned with the tide. The
+western headlands were black silhouettes.
+
+"Oh, but it is beautiful!" she said at last.
+
+"Yes, it is beautiful," he agreed somberly; "but when one is lonely,
+somehow it hurts."
+
+There ensued a short, tense silence, broken only by the soft rolling of
+the bit wheels in the horses' mouths.
+
+"Yes," she agreed softly, after a moment, "I feel that, too. Yet
+sometimes I wonder if one doesn't see and feel more keenly when one is
+not too happy--" She hesitated.
+
+"Yes, yes! Go on!" he urged in a low voice. His tone, his attitude,
+suddenly seemed to envelop her with understanding. He appeared to offer
+her aid, chivalrous aid, although no word was spoken. She had not quite
+meant it that way; in fact, her thought was to offer _him_ sympathy.
+But somehow it was grateful. It would do no harm to enjoy it, secretly,
+for a moment. His unexpressed sympathy--for what she would have been
+unable to say--was attractive to her isolation.
+
+Often on returning from these rides she asked him in for a cup of tea.
+Occasionally, when she was overheated, or damp from the fog, she would
+excuse herself and slip into a soft negligee. With lamp and fire lit
+they made a very cozy tete-a-tete. He smoked contemplatively; she
+stitched at the inevitable embroidery of the period. Occasionally they
+talked animatedly; quite as frequently they sat in sociable silence.
+Gringo slept by the fire dreaming of rabbits and things, his hind legs
+twitching as he triumphantly ran them down. One evening she caught
+sight of a rip in the sewing of his tobacco pouch. In spite of his
+protests, she insisted on sewing it up for him. She was conscious of
+his eyes on her while she plied the needle, and felt somehow very
+feminine and sure of her power.
+
+"There!" she cried, when she had finished. "You certainly do need
+somebody to take care of you!"
+
+He took it without spoken thanks, and put it slowly away in his
+pocket--as though, he would have kissed it. A pregnant silence
+followed, he sitting staring at her, she jabbing the needle idly into
+the arm of her chair. Suddenly, as though taking a tremendous
+resolution, he spoke:
+
+"Nan, I am going to ask you a question. You must not be offended. Do
+you really love your husband?" At her hasty movement he hurried on: "I
+imagine I feel something unsatisfied about you--besides, lots of women
+don't."
+
+As he probably expected, her indignation was thoroughly aroused. He
+took his castigation and dismissal meekly, and found some interest in
+the ensuing negotiations toward reconciliation. No one knew better than
+he how to sue for forgiveness. But he was quite satisfied to have
+implanted the idea, for Ben Sansome was content with slow coral-insect
+progress. A busy man, engaged in men's occupations, would never have
+had the patience for this leisurely establishment of atmosphere and
+influence; his impatience or passion would have betrayed him to an
+early outbreak. But with Sansome it was the practice of a fine art. He
+knew just how far to go. No one could more skilfully ingratiate himself
+in small ways. He always knew what gown she should wear or had worn,
+and always commented appreciatively on what she had on. Keith merely
+knew vaguely whether she looked well or ill. Sansome noticed and
+praised little things--her well-shod feet, the red lights in her hair,
+an unusual flower in her belt. He knew every hat she owned, and he had
+his well-marked preferences. He never made direct love, nor attempted
+to touch her. She felt the growing attraction, enjoyed it, but did not
+analyze it. She merely considered Ben Sansome as "nice," as needing
+guidance, as romantic----
+
+Occasionally, after seeing more than usual of him, some feeling of
+reaction or some faint stirring of conscience would impel her--perhaps
+to convince herself of the harmlessness of it all--to make an especial
+effort to draw her husband out of his preoccupation into more human
+relations. She dressed with great care, earlier than usual; she
+gathered flowers for the vases, she fussed about lighting lamps,
+placing ash trays and chairs, generally arranging the setting for his
+welcome home. The preparations kindled her own enthusiasm. She became
+herself quite worked up in anticipation. When she heard his step, she
+ran to meet him in the hall. Keith happened to be tired to the point of
+exhaustion.
+
+"Good heavens!" was his comment; "are we having company to-night? Why
+all the clothes and illumination?"
+
+His relaxed, dispirited manner of removing and hanging up his coat
+reacted upon her instantly. Her high spirits sank to the depths. They
+ate their meal in almost complete silence. Nan could not help
+visualizing Sansome's appreciation of such an occasion.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+
+The new coherence in society began to manifest itself in one important
+way: public gambling declined. In the "old days" it was said that
+everybody but clergymen frequented the big gambling halls. They were a
+sort of club. But now the most influential citizens began to stay away.
+Probably they gambled as much as ever, but they took such pleasures in
+private. Two or three only of the larger places remained in business.
+Save for them, open gambling was confined to the low dives near the
+water front. There was no definite movement against the practice. It
+merely fell off gradually.
+
+During these busy years the Sherwoods had quite methodically continued
+to lead their customary lives. He read his morning paper on the veranda
+of the Bella Union, talked his leisurely politics, drove his horses,
+and in the evening attended to his business. She drove abroad, received
+her men friends, gave them impartial advice and help in their
+difficulties, dressed well, and carried on a life of many small
+activities. The Sherwoods were always an attractive looking and
+imposing couple, whenever they appeared. About three or four times a
+year they drove into the residential part of town and made a half-dozen
+formal calls--on the Keiths among others. Probably their lives were
+more nearly ordered on a routine than those of any other people in the
+new city.
+
+One afternoon Sherwood came in at the usual hour, deposited his high
+hat carefully on the table, flicked the dust off his boots, and
+remarked casually:
+
+"Patsy, I've sold the business."
+
+Mrs. Sherwood was pinning on her hat. She stopped short, her hand
+halfway to her head, as though turned to marble. After a moment she
+asked in a quick, stifled voice:
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well," replied Sherwood, continuing methodically to readjust his
+dress, "I've been thinking for some time that times were changing. The
+gambling business is losing tone. I don't see the same class of people
+I used to see. Public sentiment--of the very best people, I mean--is
+drifting away from it. In the future, in my judgment, it's not going to
+pay as it ought. I've been thinking these things for some time. So when
+a bona fide purchaser came along----"
+
+But he got no further. With a smothered cry she let her arms drop. Her
+customary poise had vanished. She flung herself on him, laughing,
+crying, gasping.
+
+"Why, Patsy! Patsy!" he cried, patting her small, sleek head as it
+pressed against his shoulder. "What is it, dearie? Tell me? What's
+wrong?"
+
+He was vastly perturbed and anxious, for she was not at all the type
+that loses control readily.
+
+"Nothing! nothing!" she gasped. "I'll be all right in a minute. Don't
+mind me. Just let me alone. Only you told me so suddenly----"
+
+"Don't you want me to sell?" he asked, utterly bewildered.
+
+Gradually he gathered from her disjointed exclamations that this was
+just the one thing she had wanted, secretly, for years; the thing she
+had schooled herself not to hope for; the last thing in the world she
+had expected. And to his astonishment he gathered further that now she
+was free she could take her place with the other women----
+
+"But I hadn't the slightest idea you wanted to!" he interrupted at this
+point. "You've never showed any signs of paying the slightest attention
+to them before!"
+
+She was drying her eyes, and looking a little happily foolish.
+
+"I knew better than to give them a chance to snub me," she told him.
+"Now I'm respectable."
+
+But at this Sherwood reared his crest.
+
+"Respectable!" he snorted, "What do you mean? Haven't you always been
+respectable? I'd like to see anybody who would hint--"
+
+"You're a dear, but you're a man," she broke in more calmly. "Don't you
+know that a gambler's wife isn't respectable--in their sense of the
+word?"
+
+"But every mother's son of them gambles!" cried Sherwood. "It's a
+perfectly legal and legitimate occupation!"
+
+"The men do; we'd always get along if it was only a question of the
+men. But the women make distinctions--"
+
+"Look here!" he broke out wrathfully. "There's Dick Blatchford mixed up
+in dirty work for dirty money I wouldn't lay my fingers on; and Terry,
+or Brannan, or McGowan, or all the rest of the boodling, land-grabbing,
+pettifogging crew! Why, if I made my living or spare cash the way that
+gang of pirates and cutthroats do I'd carry a pair of handcuffs for
+myself. Honest! Respectable! I've got no kick on their methods; it's
+none of my business. But their wives are all right. I don't see it!"
+
+"It's all names, I acknowledge," she soothed, "just names, I attach no
+more weight to them than you do. Don't you suppose I'd have said
+something if I had thought you were doing anything wrong? But that's
+the way they play the game, and it is their game. If we play it we've
+got to accept their rules. Don't you see?"
+
+"Well, it's a mighty poor game," grumbled Sherwood, "and they strike me
+as an exceptionally stupid lot of women. They'd drive me to drink. I
+don't see what you want to bother with them for."
+
+"They are," she agreed. "They won't amuse me much--you couldn't
+understand--it's just the _idea_ of it--But I won't be looked down on,
+even by my inferiors! Tell me, Jack, when we sell the business are we
+going to be wealthy, will we have plenty of money?"
+
+A hurt look came into his fine, straightforward eyes.
+
+"Haven't you always had all you wanted, Patsy?" he inquired.
+
+"Of course I have, you old goose! But I want to know what our resources
+are before I plan my campaign."
+
+"Going in up to your neck, are you?" he commented ruefully.
+
+She nodded. Her eyes were bright, and a spot of colour glowed in either
+cheek.
+
+"Course I am. What can I spend?"
+
+"You can have whatever you want."
+
+"That's too vague, too indefinite. How rich--or poor--are we going to
+be?"
+
+"We'll be rich enough."
+
+"Very?"
+
+"Well--yes, very. The business has paid, investments have panned out. I
+got a good cash purchase price."
+
+"How much can I spend a year?" she persisted. "It doesn't matter
+whether it's much or little, but I want to know."
+
+"What a mercenary little creature!" he cried facetiously, then sobered
+as he saw by the expression of her face that this, apparently trivial
+thing meant a great deal to her. "Oh, fifty thousand or so won't
+cripple us."
+
+"A year?" she breathed, awed.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Oh!" she cried rapidly. "Then we'll have a house--a house built for
+our very own selves, our very own plans!"
+
+"Why, I thought we were very comfortable here!" he protested, a little
+dismayed. "Haven't we room enough? I'll make Rebinot cut a door----"
+
+"No! no! no! a house of my own!" She was on fire with excitement,
+walking restlessly up and down. He watched her a moment or so. His
+slower imagination was kindling. He was beginning to grasp the
+symbolism of it, what it meant to her, the release of long-pent secret
+desires. As she passed him, he seized her and drew her gently to his
+knee.
+
+"Patsy!" he cried contritely, "I didn't realize! I didn't guess you
+weren't perfectly contented here!"
+
+She brushed his cheek with hers.
+
+"Of course you didn't," she reassured him.
+
+"If you'd the slightest----"
+
+She threw her head back proudly, her breast swelled.
+
+"I married you to lead your life. Jack, whatever it was," she told him,
+"to be your _help_mate."
+
+"You're the game little sportsman in this town!" he cried. "And if you
+want to make those flub-dubs crawl, by God you sail in! I'll back you!"
+
+Ten minutes later she asked him:
+
+"What are you going to do, yourself, Jack? Somehow, I can't imagine you
+idle."
+
+"Well," said Sherwood, "the boys are organizing a stock exchange, and
+it struck me that it might be a good idea if I went into that."
+
+She began to laugh softly, in affectionate amusement.
+
+"Stop it!" he commanded indignantly. "I know that laugh, What have I
+done now?"
+
+"I was just thinking what a nice, _respectable_ gambler you are going
+to be now," she said, "It's in your blood, Jack, and I love it--but
+it's funny!"
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+
+But now, at the very sources, the full flood of the somewhat turbid
+tide of prosperity was beginning to fail. The ebb had not yet reached
+the civic consciousness. It would have required a philosopher, and a
+detached philosopher at that, to have connected cause and effect, to
+have forecast the inevitable trend of events. If there were any
+philosophers they were not detached! Nobody had discovered the simple
+truth that extravagance, graft, waste, cost money; and that the money
+must come from somewhere. Realization on its property and taxes were
+the twin sources of the city's revenues. The property was now about all
+sold or swindled away. Remained the taxes. And it is a self-evident
+truth that people will pay high taxes cheerfully only so long as they
+themselves are making plenty of money easily.
+
+Up to this period such had been the case. Prices had been high, wages
+had been high, opportunities had been many. Enormous profits had been
+the rule. Everybody had invariably made money. These conditions upset
+the mental balance of the shipping merchants back East. A madness
+seemed to obsess them for sending goods to California. The mere rumour
+of a want or a lack was answered by immense shipments of that
+particular commodity. The first cargo to arrive supplied the want; all
+the rest simply broke the market. It was a gamble as to who should get
+there first. The immediate and picturesque consequence was a fleet of
+beautiful clipper ships, built like racing yachts, with long clean
+lines and snowy sails. They made extraordinarily fast voyages, and they
+promptly condemned to death the old-fashioned, slow freight carriers.
+Indeed, four-hundred odd of these actually rotted at anchor in the bay;
+it had not paid to move them! Some of these clippers gained vast
+reputations: the _Flying Cloud_, the _White Squall_, the _Typhoon_, the
+_Trade Wind_. The markets were continually in a state of glut with
+goods sold at auction. This condition tightened the money market, which
+in turn reacted on other branches of industry. Again, the great fires
+of '49-'53 resulted in the erection of too many fireproof buildings.
+Storage was needed, and rentals were high, so everybody plunged on
+storehouses. By '54 many hundreds of them stood vacant, representing
+loss. At that period the first abundance of the placers began to fall
+off.
+
+Agriculture was beginning to be undertaken seriously; and while this
+would be an ultimate source of wealth, its immediate effect was to
+diminish the demand for imported foodstuffs--another blow to a purely
+mercantile city.
+
+All this made for excitement, some immediate gain, but a sure ultimate
+loss. Markets fluctuated wildly. A ship in sight threw operators into a
+fever. No one knew what she might be carrying, or how she would, affect
+prices. It was, therefore, positively unsafe to keep-many goods is
+stock. Quick, immediate sales were the rule. And failures were many.
+
+Now in these middle fifties the pinch was beginning at last to itself
+felt. Everybody was a little vague about it all, and nobody had gone so
+far as to formulate his dissatisfactions or his remedies. The tangible
+result was the formation of two as yet inchoate elements, representing
+the extremes of ideas and of interests.
+
+The first of these elements--that can with equal justice be called the
+parasitic or the middleman class--consisted in itself of several sorts
+of people. The nucleus was a small, intellectually honest set of men
+who believed, in the law _per se_, in the sacredness of formal
+institutions in the constitution, and in the subservience of the
+individual to the institution. This was temperamental. Behind them were
+many much larger groups of those needed either the interpretation or
+the protection of the law for their private interests. These were of
+all sorts from honest literal-minded dealers, through shady contractors
+and operators, down to grafters and the very lowest type of strong-arm
+bullies. The tone and respectability came from the first, the practical
+results from the second. The first class had a genuine intellectual
+contempt for men whose minds could not see--or at least would not
+accept--the same subtleties that it did. Its members were fond of such
+phrases as the "lawless mob," or the "subversion of time-honoured
+institutions." This small, subjectively honest, conservative, specially
+trained element must not be forgotten in the final estimate of what
+later came to be known as the "Law and Order" party.
+
+On the other hand was first of all an equally small nucleus of thinking
+men whose respect for the law, merely as law, was not so profound; men
+who were, reluctantly, willing to admit that when law completely broke
+down in encompassing justice, individualism was justified in stepping
+in. Behind them was a vast body of more or less unthinking men who
+recognized the indubitable facts that the law had become a farce, that
+justice had degenerated to tricks, and who were, therefore,
+instinctively against law, lawyers, and everybody who had anything to
+do with them.
+
+Strangely enough this made for lawlessness on both sides. Those who
+believed in "law and order" committed crime or misdemeanour or mere
+injustice, sure of escape through some technicality. Those who
+distrusted courts administered justice illegally with their own hands!
+Nor was this merely in theory. San Francisco at that time was
+undoubtedly the most corrupt and lawless city in the world. Street
+shootings, duels, robberies, ballot-box stuffing, bribery, all the
+crimes traceable to a supine police and venal or technical courts were
+actually so commonplace as to command but two or three lines in the
+daily papers. Justice was completely smothered under technicalities and
+delays.
+
+The situation would have been intolerable to any people less busy than
+the people of that time. For political corruption in a vigorous body
+politic is not, as pessimists would have us believer an indication of
+incipient decay, but only an indication that a busy people are willing
+to pay that price to be left alone, to be relieved of the
+administration of their public affairs, When they get less busy, or the
+price in corruption becomes too high, then they refuse to pay. The
+price Francisco was paying becoming very high, not only in money, but
+in other and spiritual things. She could still afford to pay it; but at
+the least pressure she would no longer afford it. Then she would act.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+
+In the second year of his residence Keith had a minor adventure that
+shifted a portion of his activities to other fields. He was in
+attendance at a council meeting, following the interests of certain
+clients. The evening was warm, the proceedings dull. Opened windows let
+in the sounds from the Plaza and a night air that occasionally flared
+the smoky lamps. The clerk's voice was droning away at some routine
+when the outer door opened and a most extraordinary quartette entered
+the chamber. Three of these were the ordinary, ragged, discouraged,
+emaciated, diseased "bums," only too common in that city. In early
+California a man either succeeded or he failed into a dark abyss of
+complete discouragement; the new civilization had little use for
+weaklings. The fourth man can be no better described than in the words
+of a chronicler of the period. Says the worthy diarist:
+
+"He was a man of medium stature, slender but very graceful, with almost
+effeminate hands and feet--the former scrupulously kept, the latter
+neatly shod--and with a certain air of fragility; very soft blue eyes
+with sleepy lids; a classically correct nose; short upper lip; rosy,
+moist lips. His clothes: a claret-coloured coat, neither dress nor
+frock, but mixed of both fashions, with a velvet collar and brass
+buttons; a black vest, double breasted; iron-gray pantaloons; fresh,
+well-starched, and very fine linen; plain black cravat, negligently
+tied; a cambric handkerchief; and dark kid gloves. He wore gold
+spectacles, and carried a malacca cane."
+
+Instead of slipping into the seats provided for spectators, this
+striking individual marched boldly to the open space before the mayor's
+chair, followed, shamefaced and shambling, by the three bums.
+
+"Your honours and gentlemen," he cried in a clear, ringing voice, to
+the scandal of the interrupted legislators, "we are very sick and
+hungry and helpless and wretched. If somebody does not do something for
+us, we shall die; and that would be bad, considering how far we have
+come, and how hard it was to get here, and how short a time we have
+been here, and that we have not had a fair chance. All we ask is a fair
+chance, and we say again, upon our honour, gentlemen, if somebody does
+not do something for us, we shall die, or we shall be setting fire to
+the town first and cutting all our throats."
+
+He stood leaning lightly against his malacca cane, surveying them
+through his sleepy blue eyes. The first astonishment over, they took up
+a collection, after the customary careless, generous fashion. The young
+man saluted with his cane, and herded his three exhibits out.
+
+Keith, much struck, followed them, overtaking the quartette on the
+street.
+
+"My name is Keith," he said, "I should like to make your acquaintance."
+
+"Mine is Krafft," replied the unknown, "and I am delighted to accept
+your proffer."
+
+He said nothing more until he had marshalled his charges, into a cheap
+eating-house, ordered and paid for a supper, and divided the remainder
+of the amount collected. Then he dusted his fingers daintily with a
+fine handkerchief, and sauntered out into the street, swinging his
+malacca cane.
+
+"Incidents of that sort restore one's faith in the generosity of our
+people," Keith remarked, in order to say something.
+
+"Nobody has been generous," denied Krafft categorically, "and no
+particular good has been accomplished. Filled their bellies for this
+evening; given them a place to sleep for this night; that's all."
+
+"That's something," ventured Keith. "It helps."
+
+"The only way to help we have not undertaken. We have done nothing
+toward finding out why there are such creatures--in a place like this.
+That's the only way to help them: find out why they are, and then
+remove the why."
+
+This commonplace of modern charity was then a brand-new thought. Keith
+had never heard it expressed, and he was much interested.
+
+"I suppose there are always the weak and the useless," he said vaguely.
+
+"If those men were wholly weak and useless, how did they get out here?"
+countered Krafft. "To compass such a journey takes a certain energy, a
+certain sum of money, a certain fund of hope. The money goes, the
+energy drains, the hope fades. Why?"
+
+They stopped at a corner.
+
+"I live just near here," said Krafft. "If you will honour me."
+
+He led the way down a narrow dark alley, along which they had fairly to
+grope their way. It debouched, however, into the forgotten centre of
+the square. All the edges had been built close with brick stores,
+warehouses, and office buildings. But in the very middle had been left
+a waste piece of ground, occupied only by a garden and a low one-room
+abode, with a veranda and a red-tiled roof. Under the moonlight and the
+black shadows from the modern buildings it slept amid its bright
+flowers with the ancient air of another world. Krafft turned a key and
+lighted a lamp. Keith found himself in a small, neat room, with heavy
+beams, fireplace, and deep embrasured windows. An iron bed, two chairs,
+a table, a screen, a shelf of books, and a wardrobe were its sole
+furnishings. In the fireplace had been laid, but not lighted, a fire of
+sagebrush roots.
+
+Krafft touched a match to the roots, which instantly leaped into eager
+and aromatic flames. From a shelf he took a new clay pipe which he
+handed to Keith.
+
+"Tobacco is in that jar," he said.
+
+He himself filled and lighted a big porcelain pipe with wexelwood stem.
+
+"What would you do about it?" asked Keith, continuing the discussion.
+
+"What would you most want, if you were those poor men?" retorted
+Krafft, blowing a huge cloud.
+
+Keith laughed.
+
+"Drink, food, clothes, bed," he stated succinctly.
+
+"And work wherewith to get them," supplemented Krafft.
+
+Keith laughed again.
+
+"Not if I know their sort! Work is the one thing they _don't_ want."
+
+Krafft leaned forward, and tapped the table with one of his long
+forefingers.
+
+"The lazy part of them, the earthen part of them, the dross of
+them--yes, perhaps. But let us concede to them a spark that smoulders,
+way down deep within them--a spark of which they think they are
+ashamed, which they do not themselves realize the existence of except
+occasionally. What is the deep need of them? It is to feel that they
+are still of use, that they amount to something, that they are men.
+That more than mere food and warmth. Is it not so?"
+
+"I believe you're right," said Keith, impressed.
+
+"Then," said Krafft triumphantly, "it _is_ work they want, work that is
+useful and worth paying for."
+
+"But there's plenty of work to be had," objected Keith, after a moment.
+"In fact, there's more work in this town than there are men to do it."
+
+"True, But it is the hard work these men have failed at. It is too
+hard. They try; they are discouraged; they fall again, and perhaps they
+never get up. Such men must be led, must be watched, must be stopped
+within their strength."
+
+"Who's there to do that sort of dry nursing of bums?" demanded Keith
+with a half laugh.
+
+"He who would help," said Krafft quietly.
+
+They smoked for some time in silence; then Keith arose to go.
+
+"It is a big idea; it requires thought," said he ruminatively. "You are
+a recent arrival, Mr. Krafft? What is your line of activity?"
+
+The slight, elegant little man smiled.
+
+"I am one of the--what is it you called, them--bums of whom we talk. I
+try to do what is within my power, within my strength-lest I, too,
+become discouraged, lest I, too, fall again--and not get up."
+
+"I have not seen you about anywhere," said Keith, puzzled by this
+speech.
+
+"I do not go anywhere; I should be eaten. You do not understand me, and
+I am a poor host to talk in riddles. I am a philosopher, not a man of
+action; egotist, not an egoist; one who cannot swim in your strong
+waters. As I said, one of that same class whom your bounty helped this
+evening."
+
+"Good Lord, man!" cried Keith, looking about the little room. "You're
+not in want?"
+
+Krafft laughed gently.
+
+"In your sense, no. I have my meals. Enough of me. Go, and think of
+what I say."
+
+Keith did so, and the result was the first organized charity in San
+Francisco. Since 1849 men had always been exceptionally generous in
+responding to appeals for money. Huge sums could easily be raised at
+any time. Hospitals and almshouses dated from the first. But having
+given, these pioneers invariably forgot. The erection of the buildings
+cost more than they should, and management being venal, conditions soon
+became disgraceful. Alms reached the professional pauper. The miner or
+immigrant, diseased, discouraged, out of luck, more often died--either
+actually or morally.
+
+So much had this first interview caught his interest that Keith dropped
+in on his new acquaintance quite often. It soon became evident that
+Krafft lived in what might be called decent poverty. The one fine
+rig-out in which he made his public appearances was most carefully
+preserved. Indoors he always promptly assumed a dressing-gown, a skull
+cap with a gold tassel, and his great porcelain pipe. His meals he
+cooked for himself. Never did he leave his house until about three
+o'clock. Then, spick and span, exquisitely appointed, he sauntered
+forth swinging his malacca cane. After a promenade of several hours he
+returned again to his dressing-gown, his porcelain pipe, and his books.
+Keith enjoyed hugely his detached, reflective, philosophical,
+spectator-of-life conversation. They talked on many subjects besides
+sociology. At his fourth visit Krafft made a suggestion.
+
+"You shall come with me and see," said he.
+
+He led the way to the water front under Telegraph Hill, the newest and
+the most squalid part of town. The shallow water was in slow process of
+being filled in by sand from the grading uptown and with all sorts of
+miscellaneous debris, Pending solidity, this sketchy real estate
+swarmed with squatters. There were lots sunken below the street level,
+filled with stagnant water, discarded garments, old boxes, ashes, and
+rubbish; houses huddled closely together with stale water beneath;
+there were muddy alleys; murderous cheap saloons; cheaper gambling
+joints; rickety, sagging tenements. The people corresponded to their
+habitations. All the low elements lurked here, the thugs, strong-arm
+men, the hold-ups, the heelers, the weaklings, the bums, the diseased.
+In ordinary times they here dwelt in a twilight existence; but at
+periods of excitement--as when the city burned--they swarmed out like
+rats for plunder.
+
+Krafft held his way steadily to the wharves. There he left the causeway
+and descended to the level of the beach. Beneath the pilings, and above
+the high-water mark, was a little hut. It was not over six feet square,
+constructed of all sorts of old pieces of boxes, scraps of tin, or
+remnants of canvas. Overhead rumbled continuously the heavy drays,
+shaking down, through the cracks the dust of the roadway. Against one
+outside wall of this crazy structure an old man sat, chair tilted in
+the sun. Even the chair was a curiosity, miraculously held together by
+wires. The man was very old, and very feeble, his knotted hands
+clasping a short, black clay pipe. Inside the hut Keith, saw a rough
+bunk on which lay jumbled a quilt and a piece of canvas.
+
+"Well, John," greeted Krafft cheerfully, "I've brought a friend to see
+you."
+
+The old man turned on Keith a twinkling blue eye.
+
+"Glad to see you," he said briefly.
+
+"Getting on?" pursued Krafft.
+
+"Fine."
+
+"Here's a new kind of tobacco I want you to try. I should value your
+opinion."
+
+Keith's hand wandered toward his pocket, but stopped at a sharp look
+from Krafft. After a moment's chat they withdrew.
+
+"What a pathetic old figure! What utter misery!" cried Keith.
+
+"No!" said Krafft positively. "There you are wrong. Old John is in no
+need of us. He has his house and his bed, and he gets his food. How, I
+do not know, but he gets it. The spark is burning clear and steady. He
+has not lost his grip. He gets his living with confidence. Let him
+alone."
+
+"But he must be very miserable--especially when it rains," persisted
+Keith.
+
+Krafft shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"As to that, I know not," he returned indifferently. "That does not
+matter to the soul. I will now show you another man."
+
+They retraced their steps. On a corner of Montgomery Street Krafft
+stopped before a one-armed beggar, the stump exposed, a placard around
+his neck.
+
+"Now here's another John," said Krafft. "What he wants is work, and
+somebody to see that he does it."
+
+The one-armed beggar, who was fat, with a good-natured countenance,
+evidently considered this a joke. He grinned cheerfully.
+
+"Don't have to, guvenor," said he.
+
+"How much did you take in yesterday, John?" asked Krafft; then,
+catching the beggar's look of suspicion, he added, "This is a friend of
+mine; he's all right."
+
+"Twenty-two dollars," replied the beggar proudly. "Pretty good day's
+wages!"
+
+"I'm afraid the spark is about out with you, John," said Krafft
+thoughtfully. He walked on a few steps, then turned back. "John," he
+asked, "what is your contribution to society?"
+
+The beggar stared, uncertain of this new chaff.
+
+"The true theory of business, John, is that traffic which does not
+result In reciprocal advantages to buyer and seller is illegitimate, or
+at least abnormal."
+
+They walked on, Keith laughing at the expression on the beggar's face.
+
+"That was considerably over his head," he observed.
+
+Nothing more was said for half a block.
+
+"I wonder if it was over yours," then said Krafft, unexpectedly.
+
+"Eh?" ejaculated Keith, bewildered.
+
+These walks with Krafft finally resulted in the institution of a fund
+which Keith raised and put into Krafft's hands for intelligent use. The
+effects were so interesting that Keith, thoroughly fascinated, began to
+pester his friends for positions for some of his proteges. As he was
+well-liked and in earnest, these efforts were taken good-humouredly.
+
+"Here comes Milt Keith," said John Webb to Bert Taylor. "Bet you a
+beaver hat he's got a highly educated college professor that he wants a
+job for."
+
+"'A light job, not beyond his powers,'" quoted Taylor.
+
+"Like cleaning genteel spittoons," supplemented Webb.
+
+"The engine house is full of 'em polishing brass," complained Taylor.
+
+"Well, he's a young felly, and I like him," concluded Webb heartily.
+
+Of course many of the experiments failed, but fewer than might have
+been anticipated. Part of Krafft's task was to keep in touch with the
+men. His detached, philosophical method of encouragement and analysis
+of the situation seemed just the thing they needed.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+
+These activities gave Keith just the required door out into a world
+other than his own. Were it not for something of the sort he might,
+like many modern corporation lawyers, have confined himself entirely to
+his own class. And this, of course, would eventually have meant
+narrowness.
+
+But through Krafft, and especially through his desire to help Krafft's
+work, he came in contact with all sorts of people; and, what was more
+important, he found that he liked a great many of them. So it happened
+that when it seemed expedient to the ruling caste to put him in as
+Assistant District Attorney, his inevitable election met with wider
+approval than such elections usually enjoy.
+
+For it must be understood that in the fifties any candidate selected by
+the ruling caste was absolutely sure of election. The machinery was
+thoroughly in their hands. Diplomacy in party caucuses, delicate
+manipulation at primaries, were backed by cruder methods if need be.
+Associations were semi-publically formed for the sale of votes; gangs
+of men were driven from one precinct to another, voting in all;
+intimidation, and, indeed, open violence, was freely used. Only the
+most adventurous or the most determined thought it worth while even to
+try to vote in the rough precincts. And if the first and second lines
+of defence failed, there was still the third to fall back on when the
+booths were dosed and the ballots counted: the boxes could still be
+"stuffed," the count could still be scientifically juggled to bring
+about any desired result.
+
+This particular election was one of the worst in the history of the
+place. All day fighting was kept up, and the rowdies swaggered
+everywhere. Whiskey was to be had for the asking; and the roughs who
+surrounded the polls fired shots, and in some places started what might
+fairly be called riots. Yankee Sullivan returned James Casey as elected
+supervisor, which was probably a mistake, for Casey was not a
+candidate, his name was on none of the official ballots, and nobody
+could be found who had voted for him. Everybody was surprised, Casey
+most of all! The sixth ward count was delayed unconscionably, its
+returns being withheld until nearly morning. It was more than hinted
+that this delay was prolonged until the returns had been received from
+all other precincts, so that any deficiencies might be made up by the
+sixth. The "slate" went through unbroken.
+
+Of all the candidates, Keith received the most votes, for the simple
+reason that his total included both the honest and dishonest ballots.
+Blanchford, Neil, Palmer, Adams, all the political overlords of the
+city were satisfied, as well they might be, for they had issued the
+fiat that he be chosen.
+
+"He's one of us," said they.
+
+But what was more unusual, the rank and file of decent, busy,
+hard-working citizens approved, too.
+
+"Keith is not stuck up," they told each other. "He is the _commonest_
+man in that bunch. And he's square."
+
+The position carried some social as well as political significance.
+Society made another effort to take him up. His rare appearances were
+rather in the nature of concessions. They served to make him more
+regretted, for he had an easy, jolly way of moving from one group or
+one woman to another, of paying flattering, monopolizing, brief
+attention to each in turn, and then disappearing, very early! His bold
+rather florid countenance radiated energy and quizzical good humour;
+his tight, closely curled hair crisped with virile alertness; he
+carried himself taut and eager--altogether a figure to engage the
+curiosities of women or the interest of men.
+
+Mrs. Sherwood alone was shrewd enough to penetrate to his true
+feelings. She had experienced no difficulty in pushing to a social
+leadership shared--indolently and indifferently--with Nan Keith.
+Already her past was growing dim in a tradition kept alive only by a
+few whisperers. Her wealth, her natural tact and poise, her calm
+assumption of the right to rule, her great personal charm, beauty, and
+taste were more than sufficient to get her what she wanted. The game
+was almost too easy, when one held the cards.
+
+"Yes, he's very charming," she told her husband, "but that manner of
+his does not impress me. As a matter of fact, he doesn't care a snap of
+his finger about any of them. He does it too well. It's a stencil. Only
+the outside of him does it. He's just as bad as you are; only _he_
+doesn't hold up a corner of the doorway all the evening, and beam
+vaguely in general, like a good-natured, dear old owl."
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+
+A few clear-headed men--not the "chivalry," as the fire-eating
+professional politicians and lawyers from the South were almost
+uniformly designated--were able to see exactly the problem that must
+eventually demand Keith's solution. Some of them talked it over while
+lounging and smoking in the Fire Queen reading-room. There were present
+Talbot Ward and his huge satellite, Munro; Coleman, quiet, grim,
+complacent, but looking, with his sweeping, inky moustache and his
+florid, complexion, like a flashy "sport"; Hossfros, soon to become an
+historic character; and the banker, James King of William.
+
+The latter had recently come in for considerable public discussion. He
+had for some time conducted a banking business, but becoming involved
+in difficulties, he had turned over all his assets, all his personal
+fortune, even his dwelling-house, to another bank as trustee to take
+care of his debts. Almost immediately after, that bank had failed.
+Opinion in the community divided according to the interests involved.
+The majority considered that King had been almost quixotically
+conscientious in stripping himself; but there did not lack those who
+accused him of sharp practice. In the course of ensuing discussions and
+recriminations King was challenged to a duel. He declined to fight,
+basing his refusal on principle. As may be imagined, such an action at
+such a time was even more widely commented upon than even his refusal
+to take advantage of the bankruptcy laws. It was, as far as known, the
+first time any one had had the moral courage to refuse a duel. King had
+gone quietly about his business, taking an ordinary clerkship with
+Palmer, Cook & Co. In the eyes of the discriminating few he had gained
+prestige, but most people thought him down and out.
+
+"What do you think of our new Assistant District Attorney?" Ward had
+begun the conversation.
+
+"He's a lawyer," growled Hossfros.
+
+"A pretty fairly honest one, I think," ventured King. "His training may
+be wrong, but his instincts are right."
+
+"Fat chance anything's got when it mixes up with legalities,"
+supplemented Frank Munro.
+
+"Nevertheless," remarked Coleman seriously, "I believe plain justice
+has more of a chance with him in charge than with another."
+
+"What sort of justice?" queried King. "Commercial?" He laughed in
+answer to his own question. "Criminal? I'd like to think it, gentlemen,
+but I cannot. You know as well as I do that any of us could this
+evening go into the streets, select our victim, and shoot him down
+secure in the knowledge that inconvenience is all the punishment we
+need expect--if we have money or friends. Am I not right, Coleman?"
+
+Coleman smiled sardonically, lifting his blue-black moustache.
+
+"Were Herod for the slaughter of the Innocents brought before a jury of
+this town, he would be acquitted," he said half-seriously. "Judas
+Iscariot would pass unscathed so long as any portion of his thirty
+pieces of silver remained with him."
+
+They laughed at this remarkable pronouncement, but with an undernote of
+seriousness.
+
+"No man, even exceptionally equipped as this young man seems to be,"
+went on Coleman after a moment, "can accomplish _that_"--he snapped his
+fingers--"against organized forces such as those of 'Law and Order.'"
+
+"We can't stand this sort of thing forever!" cried Hossfros hotly.
+"It's getting worse and worse!"
+
+"We probably shall not stand it forever," agreed Coleman equably, "but
+we are powerless--at present."
+
+They looked toward him for explanation of this last.
+
+"When the people at large find that _they_ cannot stand it either, then
+we shall be no longer powerless. A single man can do something then--a
+single child!"
+
+"What will happen then?" asked Munro. "Vigilantes? '51 again?"
+
+Coleman, the leader of the Vigilantes of '51, turned on him a grave eye.
+
+"God forbid! We were then a frontier community. We are now an
+organized, civilized city. We have rights and powers through the
+regular channels--at the ballot box for example."
+
+Hossfros laughed skeptically.
+
+"It must wait," continued Coleman; "it must wait on public opinion."
+
+"Well," spoke up King, "it's all very well to wait, but public opinion
+left to itself is a mighty slow growth. It should be fostered. The
+newspapers--"
+
+"Don't let's lose our sense of humour," cut in Talbot Ward. "Can you
+see Charley Nugent or Mike Rowlee crusading for the right?"
+
+"But my point is good," insisted King. "An honest, fearless editor, not
+afraid to call a spade a spade--"
+
+"Would be shot," said Coleman briefly.
+
+"The chances of war," replied King.
+
+"They don't grow that kind around here," grinned Ward.
+
+"Well," concluded Coleman, "this young Keith probably won't help any,
+but he's going to be interesting to watch, just the same, to see what
+he'll do the first time they crack the whip over him. That's the vital
+point as far as he is concerned."
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI
+
+
+Keith's activities did not immediately confront him with anything in
+the nature of a test, however. His superiors confined him to the
+drawing of briefs and the carrying through of carefully selected cases.
+It was considered well to "work him in" a little before putting
+responsibility on him.
+
+He enjoyed it, for now he had at his call all the civil and police
+resources of the city. This gave him a pleasant feeling of power. He
+was at the centre of things. And through his office he came into
+contact with ever-widening circles of people, all of whom were
+disposed, even anxious, to treat him well, to get in his good graces.
+Possibly most of these were what we would call the worst elements; and
+by that we would mean not only the roughnecks of the police or
+sheriff's offices, but also the punctilious, smooth-mannered
+Southerners who practically monopolized the political offices. These
+men would have been little considered in the South; in fact, in many
+cases, they had left their native states under a cloud or even with
+prison records; but their natural charm, their audacity, and their
+great punctilio as to "honour" deeply impressed the ordinary citizen.
+As one chronicler of the times puts it, they had "fluency in harangue,
+vigour in invective, ostentatious courage, absolute confidence about
+all matters of morals, politics, and propriety"--which is an excellent
+thumbnail sketch. Many of these ex-jailbirds rose to wealth and
+influence, so that to this day the sound of their names means
+aristocracy and birth to those ignorant of local history. Their
+descendants may be seen to-day ruffling it proudly on the strength of
+their "birth!"
+
+They, and the classes they directly and indirectly encouraged, had at
+last brought the city fairly on the financial rocks. There was no more
+revenue. Everything taxable had been taxed. The poll tax was out of all
+reason; property paid 4 per cent. on an actual valuation; theatres,
+bankers, brokers, freight, miners, merchants, hotel, keepers,
+incorporations, every form of industry was levied upon heavily. Still
+that was not enough. Even labour was paid now in scrip so depreciated
+that the cost of the simplest public works was terrible.
+
+And to heap up the measure, the year of 1855 was one of financial
+stringency. The season of '54-'55 had been one of drought. For lack of
+water most of the mining had ceased. The miners wanted to be trusted
+for their daily needs; the country stores had to have credit because
+the miners could not pay; and so on up to the wholesalers in the city.
+Goods were therefore sold cheap at auction, and the gold went East to
+pay at the source. Money, actual physical money, became scarce. The
+gold was gone, and there existed no institution legally entitled to
+issue the paper money that might have taken its place. All the banking
+was done by private firms. These took deposits, made loans, issued
+exchange, but could not issue banknotes.
+
+Still, things had looked a bit squally many times before, but nothing
+had happened. Men had the habit of optimism. No one stopped to analyze
+the situation, to realize that the very good reason nothing had
+happened was that the city had always had behind it the strength of the
+mines, and that now the mines had withdrawn.
+
+Out of a clear sky came the announcement that Adams & Co. had failed!
+
+At first nobody believed it. Adams & Co. had occupied in men's minds
+from the start much the same position as the Bank of England. The
+confirmation of the news caused the wildest panic and excitement. If
+Adams & Co. were vulnerable, nobody was secure. Small merchants began
+to call in their credits. The city caught up eagerly every item of
+news. All the assets of the bankrupt firm were turned over to Alfred
+Cohen as receiver. Some interested people did not trust Cohen. They
+made enough of a fuss to get H. M. Naglee appointed in Cohen's place.
+Naglee, demanding the assets, was told they had been deposited with
+Palmer, Cook & Co. The latter refused to give them up, denying Naglee's
+jurisdiction in the matter. The case was brought into court. Then
+suddenly it was found that Palmer, Cook & Co. had mysteriously lost
+their paramount interest in the courts. They had counted on the case
+being brought before their own judges; but it was cited before Judges
+Hazen and Park, both of whom, while ultra-technical, were honest. The
+truth of the matter was that the rats suspected Palmer, Cook & Co. of
+sinking, too, and had deserted. Judges Hazen and Park called upon the
+firm to turn over to Naglee the assets of Adams & Co. They still
+refused. One of the partners, named Jones, and Cohen were imprisoned.
+Some where $269,000 was missing. Nobody knew anything about it. The
+books having to do with the transaction had mysteriously disappeared.
+Two days later an Irishman found them floating in the bay, and brought
+them to the court. But the crucial pages were missing. And then
+suddenly, while both Judge Hazen and Judge Park were out of town,
+application was made to the Supreme Court--of which Judge Terry was
+head--for the release of Jones and Cohen. The application was granted.
+
+So an immense sum of money disappeared; nobody was punished; it was all
+strictly legal; and yet the dullest labourer could see that the whole
+transaction amounted to robbery under arms. Failures resulted right and
+left. Wells Fargo & Co. closed their doors, but resumed within a few
+days. A great many pocketbooks were hit. There was much talk and
+excitement.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII
+
+
+On an evening in October, returning home at an early hour, Keith found
+Nan indignant and excited. She held in her hand a tiny newspaper, not
+half the usual size, consisting only of a single sheet folded.
+
+"Have you seen this?" she burst out as Keith entered. "Isn't it
+outrageous!"
+
+Keith was tired, and sank into an easy chair with a sigh of relaxation.
+
+"No, what is it?" he asked, reaching his hand for the paper. "Oh, the
+new paper. I saw them selling it on the street yesterday."
+
+It was the _Bulletin_, Vol. 1, No. 2. Like all papers of that day, and
+like some of the English papers now, its first page was completely
+covered with small advertisements. A thin driblet of short local items
+occupied a column on the third and fourth pages, a single column of
+editorial on the second.
+
+"Seems a piffling little sheet," he observed, "to be read in about
+eight seconds by any one not interested in advertisements. What is it
+that agitates you, Nan?"
+
+"Read that." She pointed to the editorial.
+
+The article in question proved to be an attack on Palmer, Cook & Co. It
+said nothing whatever about the Cohen-Naglee robbery. Its subject was
+the excessive rentals charged the public by Palmer, Cook & Co. for
+postal boxes. But it mentioned names, recorded specific instances,
+avoided generalities, and stated plainly that this was merely beginning
+at the beginning in an expose of the methods of these "Uriah Heeps."
+
+"Why do they permit such things?" cried Nan, scarcely waiting for Keith
+to finish his reading, "What is Mr. Palmer going to do about it?"
+
+"Survive, I guess," replied Keith, with a grin. "I take back my opinion
+of the paper. It certainly has life." He turned to the head of the
+page. "Hullo!" he cried in surprise. "James King of William running
+this, eh?" He whistled, then laughed. "That promises to be interesting,
+sure. He was in business with that crowd for some time. He ought to
+have information from the inside!"
+
+"Mrs. Palmer is simply furious," said Nan.
+
+"I'll bet she is. Are we invited out this evening?"
+
+"The Thurstons' musicale. I thought you'd be interested in that."
+
+"Let me off, Nan, that's a good fellow," pleaded Keith, whose weariness
+had vanished. "I'd be delighted to go at any other time. But this is
+too rich. I must see what the gang has to say."
+
+"I suppose I could drop Ben Sansome a note," assented Nan doubtfully.
+
+"Do! Send the Chink around with it," urged Keith, rising. "I'll get a
+bite downtown and not bother you."
+
+The gang--as indeed the whole city--took it as a great joke. Of those
+Keith met, only Jones, the junior partner, failed to see the humour,
+and he passed the affair off in cavalier fashion. That did not save him
+from the obligation of setting up the drinks.
+
+"I'm going to fix this thing up in the morning," he stated confidently.
+"Between you and me, there's evidently been a slip somewhere. Of course
+it ought never to have been allowed to go so far. I'll see this man
+King first thing in the morning, and buy him off. Undoubtedly that's
+about the only reason his paper exists. Wonder where he got the money
+to start it? He's busted. It can't last long."
+
+"If it keeps up the present gait, it'll last," said Judge Caldwell
+shrewdly. "Me--I'm going to send in a subscription tomorrow. Wouldn't
+miss it for anything."
+
+"It'll last as long as he does," growled Terry, "and that'll be about
+as long as a snowball in hell. What you ought to do, Jones, is what any
+man of spirit ought to do--call him out!"
+
+"He announces definitely that he won't fight duels," said Calhoun
+Bennett.
+
+"Then treat him like the cowardly hound he is," flared the
+uncompromising Terry. "Take the whip to him; and if that isn't
+effective, shoot him down as you would any other mad dog!"
+
+"Surely, that's a little extreme, Judge," expostulated Caldwell. "He
+hasn't done anything worse than stir up Jonesy a little."
+
+"But he will, sir," insisted Terry, "you mark my words. If you give him
+line, he'll not only hang himself, but he'll rope in a lot of
+bystanders as well."
+
+"I'll bet he sells a lot of papers to-morrow, anyhow," predicted Keith.
+
+"I hope so," bragged Jones. "There'll be the more to read his apology."
+
+Evidently Jones fulfilled his promise, and quite as evidently Keith's
+prediction was verified. Every man on the street had a copy of the next
+day's _Bulletin_ within twenty minutes of issue.
+
+A roar of delight went up. Jones's visit was reported simply as an item
+of news, faithfully, sarcastically, and pompously. There was no
+comment. Even the most faithful partisans of Palmer, Cook & Co. had to
+grin at the effectiveness of this new way of meeting the impact of such
+a visit.
+
+"It's clever journalism," Terry admitted, "but it's blackguardly; and I
+blame Jones for passing it over."
+
+The fourth number--eagerly purchased--proved more interesting because
+of its hints of future disclosures rather than for its actual
+information. Broderick was mentioned by name. The attention of the city
+marshal was succinctly called to the disorderly houses and the statutes
+concerning them; and it was added, "for his information," that at a
+certain address a structure was actually building at a cost of $30,000
+for improper purposes. Then followed a list of personal bonds and
+sureties for which Palmer, Cook & Co. were standing voucher, amounting
+to over two millions.
+
+The expectations of disclosures, thus aroused, were not immediately
+gratified, except in the case of Broderick. His swindles in the matters
+of the Jenny Lind Theatre and the City Hall were traced out in detail.
+Every one knew these things were done, but nobody knew just how; so
+these disclosures made interesting reading if only as food for natural
+curiosity. However, the tension somewhat relaxed. It was generally
+considered that the coarse fibre of the ex-stone-cutter, the old
+Tammany heeler, and the thick skins of his political adherents could
+stand this sort of thing. Nobody with a sensitive honour to protect was
+assailed.
+
+The position of the new paper was by now firmly established. It had a
+large subscription list; it was eagerly bought on the streets; and its
+advertising was increasing. King again turned his attention to Palmer,
+Cook & Co. Each day he treated succinctly, clearly, without rhetoric,
+some branch of their business. By the time he had finished with them he
+had not only exposed their iniquities, he had educated the public to an
+understanding of the financial methods of the times. His tilting at
+this banking firm had inevitably led him to criticism of certain of
+their subterfuges to avoid or take advantage of the law; and that as
+inevitably brought him to analysis and condemnation of the firm's legal
+advisers, James, Doyle, Barber & Boyd, a firm which had heretofore
+enjoyed a good reputation. Incidentally he called attention to
+duelling, venal newspapers, city sales, gambling, Billy Mulligan,
+Wooley Kearney, Casey, Cora, Yankee Sullivan, Martin Gallagher, Tom
+Cunningham, Ned McGowan, Charles Duane, and many other worthies, both
+of high and low degree. Never did he fear to name names and cite
+specific instances plainly. James King of William dealt in no
+innuendoes. He had found in himself the editor he had wished for, the
+man who would call a spade a spade.
+
+The _Bulletin_ twice enlarged its form. It sold by the thousand. Its
+weapon of defence was the same as its weapon of offence--pitiless and
+complete publicity. Measures of reprisal, either direct or underhand,
+undertaken against him, King published often without comment.
+
+At the first some of the cooler heads thought it might be well to
+reason with him.
+
+"The man has run a muck," said old Judge Girvin, "and while I am far
+from denying that In many--perhaps in most--cases his facts are
+correct, still his methods make for lawlessness among the masses. It
+might be well to meet him reasonably, and to expostulate."
+
+"I'd expostulate--with a blacksnake," growled the fiery Terry.
+
+A number waited on King. Keith was among them. They found his office in
+a small ramshackle frame building, situated in the middle instead of
+alongside one of the back streets. It had probably been one of the
+early small dwelling-houses, marooned by a resurvey of the streets, and
+never since moved. King sat in his shirtsleeves before a small flat
+table. He looked up at them uncompromisingly from his wide-apart steady
+eyes.
+
+"Gentlemen," he greeted them tentatively.
+
+Judge Girvin seated himself impressively, his fat legs well apart, his
+beaver hat and cane poised in his left hand; the others, grouped
+themselves back of him. The judge stated the moderate case well. "We do
+not deny any man the right to his opinion," he concluded, "but have you
+reflected on the effect such an expression often has on the minds of
+those not trained to control?"
+
+King listened to him in silence.
+
+"It seems to me, sir," he answered, when Judge Girvin had quite
+finished, "that if abuses exist they should be exposed until they are
+remedied; and that the remedy should come from the law."
+
+"What is your impelling motive?" asked the judge. "Why have you so
+suddenly taken up this form of activity? Do you feel aggrieved in any
+way--personally?"
+
+"My motive in starting a newspaper, if that is what you mean, is the
+plain one of making an honest if modest living. And, incidentally,
+while doing so, I have some small idea of being of public use. I have
+no personal grievance; but I am aggrieved, as every decent man must be,
+at the way the lawyers, the big financial operators, and the other
+blackguards have robbed the city," stated King plainly.
+
+Judge Girvin, flushing, arose with dignity,
+
+"I wish you good-day, sir," he said coldly, and at once withdrew.
+
+Keith had been watching King with the keenly critical, detached,
+analytical speculation of the lawyer. He carried away with him the
+impression of a man inspired.
+
+At the engine house, to which the discomfited delegation withdrew,
+there was more discussion.
+
+"The man is within his legal rights so far," stated Judge Girvin. "If
+any of his statements are libellous, it is the duty of the man so
+libelled to institute action in the courts."
+
+"He's too smooth for that," growled Jones.
+
+"He'll bite off more than he can chew, if he keeps on," said Dick
+Blatchford comfortably. "He's stirring up hornets' nests when he
+monkeys with men like Yankee Sullivan. He's about due for an awful
+scare, one of these days, and then he'll be good."
+
+"Do you know, I don't believe he'll scare," said Keith suddenly, with
+conviction.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII
+
+
+As Keith surmised, intimidation had no effect. In such a city of
+fire-eaters it was promptly tried. A dozen publically announced that
+they thirsted for his blood, and intended to have it; and the records
+of the dozen were of determination and courage in such matters. In the
+gambling resorts and on the streets bets were made and pools formed on
+the probable duration of King's life. He took prompt notice of this
+fact. Said the _Bulletin's_ editorial column:
+
+ Bets are now being offered, we are told, that the editor of the
+ _Bulletin_ will not be in existence twenty days longer, and the case
+ of Doctor Hogan, of the Vicksburg paper, who was murdered by gamblers
+ of that place, is cited as a warning. Pah! War, then, is the cry, is
+ it? War between the prostitutes and gamblers on one side, and the
+ virtuous and respectable on the other! Be it so, then! Gamblers of San
+ Francisco, you have made your election, and we are ready on our side
+ for the issue!
+
+Keith read this over John Sherwood's shoulder at the Monumental. The
+ex-gambler, his famous benign spectacles atop his nose, chuckled over
+it.
+
+"He doesn't scare for a cent, does he?" was his comment. "Strikes me I
+got out of the ranks of the ungodly just in time. If I were still
+gambling, I believe I'd take some of those bets he speaks of. He won't
+last--in this town. But I like his pluck--kind of. Only he's damn bad
+for business!"
+
+Saying which, John Sherwood, late gambler but now sincerely believing
+himself a sound and conservative business man, passed the sheet over to
+Keith.
+
+From vague threats the situation developed rapidly to the definite and
+personal. One Selover sent a challenge to King, which was refused.
+Selover then announced his intention of killing King on sight. The
+_Bulletin_ published this:
+
+  Mr. Selover, it is said, carries a knife. We carry a pistol. We hope
+  neither will be required, but if this encounter cannot be avoided, why
+  will Mr. Selover insist on imperilling the lives of others? We pass
+  every afternoon, about half-past four to five o'clock, along Market
+  Street from Fourth to Fifth streets. The road is wide, and not so much
+  frequented as those streets farther in town. If we are to be shot or
+  cut to pieces, for heaven's sake let it be done there. Others will not
+  be injured, and in case we fall, our house is but a few hundred yards
+  beyond, and the cemetery not much farther.
+
+These detailed attacks and bold defiances had the effect of greatly
+angering those who were the specific objects of attention; of making
+very uneasy the class to which these victims belonged; of focussing on
+public matters a public sentiment that was just becoming conscious of
+itself because of the pinch of hard times; and of rendering
+contemptuously indignant all of "higher" society.
+
+To this latter category Keith would undoubtedly have belonged--as did
+his wife and practically all his friends--had it not been for his
+association with Krafft. Through him the young lawyer came into
+intimate personal touch with a large class of people who would
+otherwise have been remote from him. He heard of their difficulties and
+problems at first hand, saw the actual effect of abuses that, looked at
+from above, were abstract or academic. Police brutality as a phrase
+carried little significance; police brutality as a clubbing of Malachi
+Hogan, who was brought in with his skull crushed, and whose blood
+stained Keith's new coat, meant something. Waste of public funds,
+translated before his eyes into eviction for nonpayment of taxes, took
+on a new significance. Keith saw plainly that a reform was needed. He
+was not, on that account, in the least sympathetic with King's methods.
+Like Judge Girvin, he felt them revolutionary and subversive. But he
+could not share the contempt of his class; rather he respected the
+editor as a sincere but mistaken man. When his name came up for
+discussion or bitter vituperation, Keith was silent. He read the
+_Bulletin_ editorials; and while he in no way endorsed their
+conclusions or recommendations, he could not but acknowledge their
+general accuracy. Without his knowing it, he was being educated. He
+came to realize the need for better administration by the city's
+officers and a better enforcement of the laws. Very quietly, deep down
+within himself, he made up his mind that in the Assistant District
+Attorney's office, at least, the old order of things should cease.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX
+
+
+One afternoon Keith walked down Kearney Street deep in discussion of an
+important Federal case with his friend, Billy Richardson, the United
+States Marshal. Although both just and an official, Richardson was
+popular with all classes save those with whom his duty brought him into
+conflict. They found their way deliberately blocked, and came out of
+the absorption of their discussion to recognize before them Charles
+Cora, an Italian gambler of considerable prominence and wealth. Cora
+was a small, dark man, nervously built, dressed neatly and carefully in
+the height of gambler fashion. He seemed to be terribly excited, and at
+once launched a stream of oaths at Richardson.
+
+"What's the matter with you, Charley?" asked the latter, as soon as he
+had recovered from his surprise.
+
+Cora, evidently too incoherent to speak, leaped at the marshal, his
+fist drawn back. Keith seized him around the body, holding his arms to
+his sides.
+
+"Hold on; take it easy!" he panted. "What's up, anyway?"
+
+Cora, struggling violently, gritted out:
+
+"He knows damn well what's up."
+
+"I'll swear I don't!" denied Richardson.
+
+"Then what do you mean telling every one that my Belle insulted your
+wife last night at the opera house?" demanded Cora, ceasing to struggle.
+
+"Belle?" repeated Richardson equably. "I don't know what you're talking
+about. Be reasonable. Explain yourself."
+
+"Yes, I got it straight," insisted the Italian. "Your wife says it
+insults her to sit next to my Belle, and you go everywhere telling it.
+What right you got to do that? Answer me that!"
+
+"Now look here," said Richardson. "I was with Jim Scott all last
+evening. My wife wasn't with me. If you don't believe me, go ask
+Scotty."
+
+Cora had apparently cooled off, so Keith released him. He shook his
+head, grumbling, only half convinced. After a moment he moved away. The
+two men watched him go, half vexed, half amused.
+
+"He's crazy as a pup about that woman," observed Richardson.
+
+"Who is she?" inquired Keith.
+
+"Why, Belle--you know Belle, the one who keeps that, crib up your way."
+
+"That woman!" marvelled Keith.
+
+He spent the afternoon in court and in his office. About half-past six,
+on his way home, he saw Cora and Richardson come out of the Blue Wing
+saloon together. They were talking earnestly, and stopped in the square
+of light from the window. Richardson was explaining, and Cora was
+listening sullenly. As Keith passed them he heard, the marshal say,
+"Well, is it all right?" and Cora reply, "Yes." Something caused him to
+look back after he had gone a dozen yards. He saw Cora suddenly seize
+Richardson's collar with his left hand, at the same time drawing a
+derringer with his right.
+
+"What are you going to do?" cried Richardson loudly and steadily,
+without straggling, "Don't shoot; I am unarmed!"
+
+Without reply Cora fired into his breast. The marshal wilted, but with
+iron strength Cora continued for several moments to hold up his victim
+by the collar. Then he let the body drop, and moved away at a fast
+walk, the derringer still in his right hand.
+
+Keith ran to his friend, and with others carried him into a nearby drug
+store. The sound of the shot almost immediately brought out a crowd.
+Keith, bending over the body of the murdered man, could see them
+pressing about the windows outside, their faces showing white from the
+lamps in the drug-store window or fading into the darkness  beyond.
+They crowded through the doorway until driven out again by some of the
+cooler heads. Conjectures and inquiries flew thick. All sorts of
+reports were current of the details, but the crowd had the main
+facts--Cora had shot Richardson, Richardson was dead, Cora had been
+taken to jail.
+
+"Then he's safe!" they sneered savagely.
+
+Men had been shot on the streets before, many men, some of them as well
+known and liked as Richardson; but not after public sentiment had been
+aroused as the _Bulletin_ had aroused it. The crowds continued to
+gather. Several men made violent street-corner speeches. There was some
+talk of lynching. A storm of yes and no burst forth when the question
+was put. Bells rang. A great mob surged to the jail, were firmly met by
+a strong armed guard, and fell back muttering.
+
+"Who will be the next victim?" men asked. "What a farce!" cried some,
+in deep disgust. "Why, the jailer is Cora's especial crony!" stated
+others, who seemed to know. "If the jury is packed, hang the jury!"
+advised certain far-seeing ones. A grim, quiet, black-bearded man
+expressed the undercurrent of opinion: "Mark my words," said he, "if
+Charles Cora is left for trial, he will be let loose on the community
+to assassinate his third victim!" It seemed that Cora had been involved
+in a previous shooting scrape. But to swing a mob to action there must
+be determined men at its head, and this mob had no leaders. Sam Brannan
+started to say something in his coarse, roaring voice, and was promptly
+arrested for inciting a riot. Nobody cared enough seriously for the
+redoubtable Sam to object to this. The situation was ticklish, but the
+police handled it tactfully for once, opposing only a passive
+opposition, leaving the crowd to fritter its energies in purposeless
+cursing, surging to and fro, and in harmless threats.
+
+Keith did not join the throngs on the streets. Having determined that
+Richardson was dead, he accompanied the body home. He was deeply
+stirred, not only by the circumstances of the murder, but also by the
+scene at which he had to assist when the news must be broken to Mrs.
+Richardson. From the house he went directly to King's residence, where
+he was told that the editor had gone downtown. After considerable
+search and inquiry he at last got sight of his man standing atop a
+wooden awning overlooking the Plaza in front of the jail. King nodded
+to him as he climbed out of the second-story window to take his
+position at the newspaper man's side.
+
+The square was a wild sight, filled, packed with men, a crowd of men
+tossed in constant motion. A mumbling growl came from them
+continuously, and occasionally a shout. Many hands were upraised, and
+in some of them were weapons. Opposite, the blank front of the jail.
+
+King's eyes were shining with interest and a certain quiet exultation,
+but he seemed not at all excited.
+
+"Will they storm the jail?" asked Keith.
+
+King shook his head.
+
+"No, these people will do nothing. But they show the spirit of the
+time. All it needs now is organization, cool, deliberate
+organization--to-morrow."
+
+"That's just what I've hunted you out to talk about," said Keith
+earnestly. "There is much talk of a Vigilance Committee. As you say,
+all it needs is the call. That means lawlessness, bloodshed."
+
+"Conditions at present are intolerable," said King briefly.
+
+"I agree with you," replied Keith. King stared. "But in this case I
+assure you the law will do its duty. It is an absolutely open and shut
+case. Acquittal is impossible. Why, I myself was witness of the affair."
+
+King looked skeptical.
+
+"Hundreds of such cases have been acquitted, or the indictment quashed."
+
+"But this is entirely different. In the first place, the case will come
+before Judge Norton and Judge Hazen, both of whom you will acknowledge
+are honest. In the second place, this case will be in my hands as
+Assistant District Attorney. I myself shall do the prosecuting, and I
+promise you on my honour that every effort will be made for a deserved
+and speedy conviction. I acknowledge justice has sometimes gone wrong
+in the past; but that has not been the fault of the law, but of the
+administration of the law. If you have the least confidence in Judge
+Norton and Judge Hazen, and if you can be brought to believe me, you
+will see that this one case of all cases should not be taken from the
+constituted authorities or made the basis for a movement outside the
+law."
+
+"Well?" said King, half convinced.
+
+"The _Bulletin_ has the greatest influence with these people. Use it.
+Give the law, the honest law, a chance. Do not get back of any
+Vigilante movement. In that way, I am convinced, you will be of the
+greatest public service."
+
+Next day the _Bulletin_ came out vigorously counselling dependence on
+the law, expressing confidence in the integrity of Hazen and Norton,
+and enunciating a personal belief that the day had passed when it would
+be necessary to resort to arbitrary measures. The mob's anger had
+possessed vitality enough to keep it up all night; but the attitude of
+the _Bulletin_, backed by responsible men like Ward, Coleman, Hossiros,
+Bluxome, and others, averted a crisis. Nevertheless, King added a
+paragraph of warning:
+
+Hang Billy Mulligan! That's the word! If Mr. Sheriff Scannell does not
+remove Billy Mulligan from his present post as keeper of the county
+jail, and Mulligan lets Cora escape, hang Billy Mulligan, and if
+necessary to get rid of the sheriff, hang him--hang the sheriff!
+
+
+
+
+XL
+
+
+The popular excitement gradually died. It had no leaders. Coleman and
+men of his stamp, who had taken command of similar crises in former
+times, counselled moderation. They were influenced, partly by the fact
+that Richardson had been a public official and a popular one.
+Conviction seemed certain.
+
+Keith applied himself heart and soul to the case. Its preparation
+seemed to him, at first an easy matter. It was open and shut. Although
+at the moment of the murder the street had not been crowded, a
+half-dozen eye-witnesses of the actual shooting were easily found,
+willing to testify to the essential facts. No defence seemed possible,
+but Cora remained undisturbed. He had retained one of the most
+brilliant lawyers of the time, James McDougall. This fact in itself
+might have warned Keith, for McDougall had the reputation of avoiding
+lost causes and empty purses. The lawyer promptly took as counsel the
+most brilliant of the younger men, Jimmy Ware, Allyn Lane, and Keith's
+friend, Calhoun Bennett. This meant money, and plenty of it, for all of
+these were expensive men. The exact source of the money was uncertain;
+but it was known that Belle was advancing liberally for her lover, and
+that James Casey, bound by some mysterious obligation, was active in
+taking up collections. Cora lived in great luxury at the jail. He had
+long been a personal friend of Sheriff Webb and his first deputy, Billy
+Mulligan.
+
+Several months passed before the case could be forced to trial. All
+sorts of legal and technical expedients were used to defer action.
+McDougall and his legal assistants were skilful players at the game,
+and the points they advanced had to be fought out according to the
+rules, each a separate little case with plenty of its own
+technicalities. Some of Keith's witnesses were difficult to hold; they
+had business elsewhere, and naturally resented being compelled, through
+no fault of their own, to remain. Keith had always looked on this play
+of legal rapiers as a part--an interesting part--of the game; but
+heretofore he had always been on the obstructing side. He worried a
+great deal. At length, by superhuman efforts, he broke through the
+thicket of technicalities and brought the matter to an issue. The day
+was set. He returned home so relieved in spirit that Nan could not but
+remark on his buoyancy.
+
+"Yes," he responded, "I've managed to drive that old rascal, McDougall,
+into the open at last."
+
+Nan caught at the epithet.
+
+"But you don't mean that--quite--do you?" she asked. "The McDougalls
+are such delightful people."
+
+"No, of course not. Just law talk," said Keith, quite sincerely. "He's
+handled his case well up to now. I'm just exasperated on that account,
+that's all."
+
+But setting the day irrevocably was only a beginning. The jury had to
+be selected. Sheriff Webb had in his hands the calling of the venire.
+While it was true that the old-time, "professional jurymen"--men who
+hung around the courthouse for no other purpose--were no longer in
+existence, it can be readily seen that Webb was able, if it were worth
+while, to exercise a judicious eye in the selection of "amenables." The
+early exhaustion of Keith's quota of peremptory challenges was
+significant, for McDougall rarely found it desirable to challenge at
+all! Keith displayed tremendous resource in last-moment detective work
+concerning the records of the panel. In this way he was enabled to
+challenge several for cause, after all his peremptory challenges had
+been used. At first he had great difficulty in getting results, for the
+police detectives proved supine. It was only after he had hired private
+agents, paying for them from his own pocket, that he obtained
+information on which he could act. The final result was a jury better
+than he had dared hope for, but worse than he desired. He had gone
+through a tremendous labour, and realized fully the difference between
+being for or against the powers.
+
+The case came to trial, Keith presented six witnesses--respectable, one
+of them well-known. These testified to the same simple facts, and their
+testimony remained unshaken under cross-examination. McDougall offered
+the plea of self-defence. He brought a cloud of witnesses to swear that
+Cora had drawn his weapon only after Richardson had produced and cocked
+a pistol. By skilful technical delays Keith gained time for his
+detectives, and succeeded in showing that two of these witnesses had
+been elsewhere at the time of the killing, and therefore had perjured
+themselves. He recalled his own witnesses, and found two willing to
+swear that Richardson's hands had been empty and hanging at his sides,
+The defence did not trouble to cross-examine this statement.
+
+At last, with a perfunctory judicial charge, the case went to the jury.
+Keith, weary to the bone, sat back in grateful relaxation. He had
+worked hard, against odds, and had done a good job. He was willing now
+to spare a little professional admiration for McDougall's skilful legal
+manoeuvring. There could be no earthly doubt of the result. He idly
+watched the big bland-faced clock, with its long second hand moving
+forward by spaced jerks. The jury was out a very long time for so
+simple a verdict, but that was a habit of California juries. It did not
+worry Keith. He was glad to rest. The judge stared at the ceiling, his
+hands clasped over his stomach. Cora's lawyers talked together in a low
+voice. Flies buzzed against dusty window-panes. The spectators watched
+apathetically. Belle, in a ravishing toilet, was there.
+
+The opening of the door broke the spell almost rudely. Keith sat up,
+listening to the formal questions and answers. They had disagreed!
+
+For a moment the import of this did not penetrate to Keith's
+understanding. Then he half rose, shouted "What!" and sank back
+stunned. His brain was in confusion. Only dimly did he hear the judge
+dismissing the jury, remanding Cora for retrial, adjourning court.
+Instantly Cora was surrounded by a congratulatory crowd. Keith sat
+alone. McDougall, gathering up his papers from the table assigned to
+counsel, made some facetious remark. Keith did not reply. McDougall
+looked at him sharply, and as he went out he remarked to Casey:
+
+"Keith takes this hard."
+
+"He does!" cried Casey, genuinely astonished. "They were trying to tell
+me he was altogether too active in this matter; but I told them he was
+young and had his way to make, and was playing to the gallery."
+
+He sauntered across the room.
+
+"Well, Milt," he cried in a jovial voice, but watching the young lawyer
+narrowly, "the Lord's on the side of true virtue, as usual."
+
+Keith came to himself, scowled, started to say something, but refrained
+with an obvious effort.
+
+Casey wandered back to McDougall.
+
+"You're right, Mac," he said. "I guess he's got the swell head. We'll
+have to call him off gently, or he'll make a nuisance of himself at the
+next trial. He makes altogether too much trouble."
+
+But McDougall was tolerant.
+
+"Oh, let him alone, Jim. He's got his way to make. Let him alone. We
+can handle the situation."
+
+
+
+
+XLI
+
+
+Keith left the courtroom in a daze of incredulity. This was his first
+serious defeat; and he could not understand it. The case was absolutely
+open and shut, a mere question of fact to which there were sufficient
+and competent witnesses. For the moment he was completely routed.
+
+As he emerged to the busy crowds on Kearney Street a sudden repugnance
+to meeting acquaintances overcame him. He turned off toward the bay,
+making his way by the back streets, alleys, and slums of that unsavoury
+quarter. But even here he was not to escape. He had not gone two blocks
+before he descried Krafft's slight and elegant figure sauntering toward
+him. Keith braced himself for the inevitable question.
+
+"Well," it came, "how goes the trial?"
+
+The words released Keith's pent flood of bitterness. Here was an
+outlet; Krafft was "safe." He poured out his disappointment, his
+suspicion, his indignation. The little man listened to him in silence,
+a slight smile, sketching his full, red lips. When Keith had somewhat
+run down, Krafft, without a word, took him by the arm and led him by
+devious ways down to the water-front portion of the city. There he
+planted him near the entrance of a dark alley.
+
+"Now you wait here," Keith was told.
+
+Keith obeyed. The interval was long, but he had much to occupy his
+mind. After a time Krafft returned in company with a slouching,
+drink-sodden bummer of powerful build and lowering mien, the remains of
+a forceful personality. This individual shambled along in the wake of
+the dapper little Krafft quite meekly and submissively.
+
+"Here you are," said the latter briskly, and with a sort of nonchalant
+authority. "Come, now, Mex, tell Mr. Keith what you know about the Cora
+trial. Go on!" he urged, as the man hesitated. "He's not going to 'use'
+you--he doesn't even know who you are or where you're to be found, and
+I'm not going to tell him. Speak up, Mex! I tell you I want him to know
+how things stand."
+
+Keith by now was acquainted with many of Krafft's proteges, but he had
+never met the delectable Mex. Evidently the latter had long known
+Krafft, however, for he acknowledged his authority unquestioningly.
+
+"It's like this, boss," he began in a hoarse voice. "You don't know me,
+like Mr. Krafft says, but there's plenty that do. I got a lot of
+infloonce down here, and when anybody wants anything they know where to
+come to get it, which is right to headquarters--here," he slapped his
+great chest.
+
+"Get on," interrupted Krafft impatiently. "We'll take it for granted
+that you are a great man."
+
+Mex looked at him reproachfully, but went on:
+
+"About this Cora trial: they come to me for good, reliable witnesses,
+and I got 'em, and drilled 'em. There ain't nobody in it with me for
+making any witness watertight."
+
+"How many witnesses?" prompted Krafft.
+
+"Eight," replied Mex promptly.
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Well, they give me five thousand fer to git the job done," admitted
+Mex, with some reluctance.
+
+"Hope they got some of it," commented Krafft.
+
+"Who gave you the money?" demanded Keith.
+
+But Krafft interposed.
+
+"Hold on, my son, that isn't ethics at all! You mustn't ask questions
+like that, must he, Mex? Very bad form!" He turned to Keith with a
+crisp air of decision. "That's what was the matter with your trial; I
+just thought I'd show you. Go on, Mex, get out," he commanded that
+individual, good-humouredly. "I'm not particularly proud of you, but I
+suppose I've got to stand you. Only remember this: Mr. Keith is my
+friend. Swear him out of the high seats of heaven--if you can--because
+that's the nature of you; but let him walk safely. In other words, no
+strong-arm work; do you understand?"
+
+The man mumbled and growled something.
+
+"Nonsense, Mex," interrupted Krafft sharply. "Do as I say.
+
+"It's a matter of a tidy sum," blurted out Mex at last.
+
+Krafft laughed.
+
+"You see, you were already marked for the slaughter," he told Keith;
+then to Mex:
+
+"Well, you let him alone; he's my friend."
+
+"All right, if you say so," growled the man.
+
+"You're safe--as far as Mex and all his people are concerned," said
+Krafft to Keith. "Our word is always good, when given to a friend;
+isn't it, Mex?"
+
+The man nodded, awkwardly and slouched away.
+
+Keith's depression had given place to anger. He had been beaten by
+unfair means; his opponent had cheated at the game, and his opponent
+enjoyed the respect of the community as a high-minded, able, dignified
+member of the bar. It was unthinkable! A man caught cheating at cards
+would most certainly be expelled from any decent club.
+
+"I'll disbar that man if it's the last act of my life!" He cried, "He's
+not fit to practise among decent men!"
+
+He left Krafft standing on the corner and smiling quietly, and hurried
+back to his office.
+
+
+
+
+XLII
+
+
+It was unfortunate for everybody that Morrell should have chosen that
+particular afternoon to pay one of his periodical calls. Morrell had
+been tactful and judicious in his demands. Keith was not particularly
+afraid of his story or the effect of it if told, but he disliked
+intensely the fuss and bother of explanations and readjustments. It had
+seemed easier to let things drift along. The transactions were
+skilfully veiled, notes were always given, Morrell was shrewd enough to
+take care that it did not cost too much. There existed not the
+slightest cordiality between the men, but a tacit assumption of civil
+relations.
+
+But this afternoon the sight of Morrell, seated with what seemed to
+Keith a smug, superior, supercilious confidence in the best of the
+office chairs, was more than Keith could stand. He was bursting with
+anger at the world in general.
+
+"You here?" he barked at Morrell, without waiting for a greeting.
+"Well, I'm sick of you! Get out!"
+
+Morrell stared at him dumbfounded.
+
+"I don't believe I understand," he objected.
+
+"Get out! Get out! Get out! Is that plain enough?" shouted Keith.
+
+Morrell arose with cold dignity.
+
+"I cannot permit--" he began.
+
+Keith turned on him abruptly.
+
+"Look here, don't try to come that rot. I said, get out--and I mean it!"
+
+So menacing was his aspect that Morrell drew back toward the door.
+
+"I suppose you know what this means?" he threatened, an ugly note in
+his quiet voice.
+
+"I don't give a damn what it means," rejoined Keith with deadly
+earnestness, "and if you don't get out of here I'll throw you out!"
+
+Morrell went hastily.
+
+Keith slammed his papers into a drawer, locked it and his office door,
+and went directly to the office of the _Bulletin_. There, seated in all
+the chairs, perched on the tables and window ledges, he found a
+representative group. He recognized most of them, including James King
+of William, Coleman, Hossfros, Isaac Bluxome, Talbot Ward, and others.
+A dead silence greeted his appearance. He stopped by the door.
+
+"You have, of course, heard the news," he said. "I have come here to
+state unequivocally, and for publication, that the Cora trial will be
+pushed as rapidly and as strongly as is in the power of the District
+Attorney's office. And if legal evidence of corruption can be obtained,
+proceedings will at once be inaugurated to indict the bribe givers."
+
+A short silence followed this speech. Several men looked toward one
+another. The tension appeared to relax a trifle.
+
+"I am glad to hear this, sir, from your own lips," at last said Coleman
+formally, "and I wish you every success."
+
+Another short and rather embarrassed silence fell.
+
+"I should like to state privately to you gentlemen, and not for
+publication"--Keith, paused and glanced toward King, who nodded
+reassuringly--"that I have evidence, but unfortunately not legal, that
+James McDougall has been guilty, either personally or through agents,
+of bribery and corruption; and it is my intention to undertake his
+disbarment if I can possibly get proper evidence."
+
+"Whether he bribed or didn't bribe, he knew perfectly well that Cora
+was guilty," stated King positively. "And he had no right to take the
+case."
+
+But at that period this was an extreme view, as it still is in the
+legal mind.
+
+"I suppose every man has a moral right to a defence," said Coleman
+doubtfully. "If every lawyer should refuse to take Cora's case, as you
+say McDougall should have refused, why the man would have gone
+undefended!"
+
+"That's all right," returned King, undaunted, "He ought to have a
+lawyer--appointed by the court--to see merely that he gets a fair
+trial; not a lawyer--hired, prostituted, at a great price--to try by
+every technical means to get him off."
+
+"A lawyer must, by the ethics of his profession, take every case
+brought him, I suppose," some one enunciated the ancient doctrine.
+
+"Well, if that is the case," rejoined King hotly, "the law warps the
+thinking and the morals of any man who professes it. And if I had a son
+to place in life, I most certainly should not put him in a calling that
+deliberately trains his mind to see things that way!"
+
+"I am sorry you have so low an opinion," spoke up Keith from the
+doorway. "I am afraid I must hold the contrary as to the nobility of my
+chosen profession. It can be disgraced, I admit. That it has been
+disgraced, I agree. That it can be redeemed, I am going to prove."
+
+He bowed and left the office.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII
+
+
+Morrell went directly from Keith's office to Keith's house. He was not
+particularly angry; for some time he had expected just this result, but
+since he had threatened, he intended to accomplish. Finding Nan Keith
+at home, he plunged directly at the subject in his most direct and
+English fashion. She listened to him steadily until he had finished.
+
+"Is that all?" she then asked him quietly,
+
+"That's all," he acknowledged.
+
+She arose.
+
+"Then I will say, Mr. Morrell, that I do not believe you. I know my
+husband thoroughly, and I am beginning to know you. I believe that is
+my only comment. Good afternoon."
+
+He made a half attempt to point to her the way to corroborative
+evidence, but she swept this superbly aside, Finally he took his
+correct leave, half angry, half amused, wholly cynical, for to his mind
+the reason for her indifference to the news he brought lay in what he
+supposed to be her relations with Ben Sansome.
+
+"Bally ass!" he apostrophized himself. "Might have known how she'd take
+it."
+
+His reading of Nan's motives was, of course, incorrect. Her first
+feeling was merely a white heat of anger against Morrell, whom she had
+never liked. Perhaps after a little this emotion might have carried
+over into, not distrust, but an uneasiness as to the main issue; but
+before she had arrived at this point Keith came in to deliver an
+ill-timed warning. As ill luck would have it, and as such coincidences
+often come about in the most perverse fashion, Keith had, down the
+street, met some malicious fool who had dropped a laughing remark about
+Sansome. It was nothing in itself. Ordinarily, Keith would have paid no
+attention to it. To-day it clashed with his mood. Even now his jealousy
+was not stirred in the least, but his sense of appearances was
+irritated. By the time he had reached home he had worked up a proper
+indignation.
+
+"Look here, Nan," he blurted out as soon as he had closed the door
+behind him, "you're seeing too much of Sansome. Everybody's talking."
+
+"Who is everybody?" she asked very quietly.
+
+"Of course I know it's all right," he blundered ahead tactlessly--the
+gleam in her eye should have warned him that he might have omitted that
+reassurance--"but just the looks of the thing. And he's such a weak and
+wishy-washy little nonentity!"
+
+Her sense of justice aroused by this, she sprang to the defence of
+Sansome.
+
+"You are quite mistaken there," she said with dignity. "Men of that
+type are never understood by men of yours. He is my friend--and yours.
+And he has been very kind to both of us."
+
+"Well, just the same, you ought not to get yourself talked about,"
+repeated Keith stubbornly.
+
+"Do you distrust me?" she demanded.
+
+"Heavens, no! But you don't realize how it looks to others. He's coming
+here morning, noon, and night."
+
+"It seems to me I may be the best judge of my own conduct."
+
+"Well," said Keith deliberately, "I don't know that you are. You must
+remember that you are my wife, and that you bear my name. I have
+something to say about it. I'm telling you; but if you cannot manage
+the matter properly, I'll just have to drop a hint to Sansome."
+
+At that she blazed out.
+
+"Do that and you will regret it to the last day of your life!" she
+flared. "If you'd be as careful with the name of Keith as I am, it
+would not suffer!"
+
+"What do you mean by that?" he asked? after a blank pause.
+
+She had not intended to use that weapon, but now she persisted placidly.
+
+"I mean that if our name has been talked about, it has not been because
+of any action of mine."
+
+His heart was beating wildly. In the multiplicity of fighting interests
+he had actually forgotten (for the moment) all about his office
+visitor. But he, too, had pluck.
+
+"I see you have had a call from our friend Morrell," he ventured.
+
+"Well!" she challenged.
+
+Her head was back, and her breath was short. This crisis had come upon
+them swiftly, unexpectedly, unwanted by either. Now it loomed over them
+in a terrible, because unknown, portent. Each realized that a misstep
+might mean irreparable consequences, but each felt constrained to go
+on. The situation must now be developed. Keith, faced with this new
+problem, lost his heat, and became cool, careful, wary, as when in
+court his faculties marshalled themselves. Nan, on the other hand,
+while well in control of her mind, poised on a brink.
+
+"I don't know what he told you," said Keith, the blood suffusing his
+face and spreading over his ears and neck, "but I'm going to tell you
+everything he would be justified in telling you. One evening a number
+of years ago, in company with a crowd, I went inside the doors of a
+disreputable place, and immediately came out again. It was part of a
+spree, and harmless. That was all there was to it. You believe me?" In
+spite of his iron control, a deep note of anxiety vibrated in his voice
+as he proffered the question.
+
+Her heart gave a leap for pride as he made this confession, his face
+very red, but his head back,  She knew he spoke the truth, the whole
+truth.
+
+"Of course I believe you," she said, trying to speak naturally, but
+with a mad impulse to laugh or cry. She swallowed, gripped her nerves,
+and went on. "But, naturally," she told him.
+
+"I consider myself as good a custodian of the family reputation as
+yourself."
+
+There the matter rested. By mutual but tacit consent they withdrew
+cautiously from the debated ground, each curiously haunted by a feeling
+that catastrophe had been fortunately and narrowly averted.
+
+
+
+
+XLIV
+
+
+Keith immediately moved for a retrial, and began anew his heartbreaking
+labours in forcing a way to definite action through the thorn thicket
+of technicalities. At the same time, on his own account, and very
+secretly, he commenced a search for evidence against the attorneys for
+the defence. By now he possessed certain private agents of his own whom
+he considered trustworthy.
+
+Early in his investigations he abandoned hope of getting direct
+evidence against McDougall himself. That astute lawyer had been careful
+to have nothing whatever to do with actual bribery or corruption, and
+he was crafty enough to disassociate himself from direct dealing with
+agents. Indeed, Keith himself was in some slight doubt as to whether
+McDougall had any actual detailed knowledge of the underground workings
+at all. But McDougall's associates were a different matter. Here,
+little by little, real evidence began to accumulate, until Keith felt
+that he could, with reasonable excuse, move for an official
+investigation. To his genuine grief Calhoun Bennett seemed to be
+heavily involved. He could not forget that the young Southerner had
+been one of his earliest friends in the city, nor had he ever tried to
+forget the real liking he had felt for him. It was not difficult to
+recognize that according to his code Cal Bennett had merely played the
+game as the game was played, carrying out zealously the intentions of
+his superiors, availing himself of time-honoured methods,
+wholeheartedly fighting for his own side. Yet there could be no doubt
+that he had made himself criminally liable. Keith brooded much over the
+situation, but got nowhere, and so resolutely pushed it into the back
+of his mind in favour of the need of the moment.
+
+But quietly as he conducted his investigations, some rumour of them
+escaped. One afternoon he received a call from Bennett. The young man
+was evidently a little embarrassed, but intent on getting at the matter.
+
+"Look heah, Keith," he began, dropping into a chair, and leaning both
+arms on the table opposite Keith, "I don't want to say anything
+offensive, or make any disagreeable implications, or insult you by
+false suspicions, but there are various persistent rumours about, and I
+thought I'd better come to you direct."
+
+"Fire away, Cal," said Keith.
+
+"Well, it's just this: they do say yo're tryin' to fasten a criminal
+charge of bribery on me. You and I have been friends--and still are, I
+hope--but if yo're goin' gunnin' foh me, I want to know it."
+
+His face was slightly flushed, but his fine dark eyes looked hopefully
+to his friend for denial. Keith was genuinely distressed. He moved an
+inkwell to and fro, and did not look up; but his voice was steady and
+determined as he replied:
+
+"I'm not gunning for you, Cal, and I wish to heaven you weren't mixed
+up in this mess." He looked up. "But I _am_ gunning for crooked work in
+this Cora case!"
+
+Bennett took his arms from the table, and sat erect.
+
+"Do you mean to imply, suh, that I am guilty of crooked work?" he
+inquired, a new edge of formality in his voice.
+
+"No, no, of course not!" hastened Keith. "I hadn't thought of you in
+that connection! I am just looking the whole matter up----"
+
+"Well, suh, I strongly advise you to drop it," interrupted Bennett
+curtly.
+
+"But why?"
+
+"It isn't ethical. You will find great resentment among yo' colleagues
+of the bar at the implication conveyed by yo' so-called investigation,
+suh."
+
+Calhoun Bennett had become stiff and formal. Keith still tried
+desperately to be reasonable and conciliatory.
+
+"But if there proves to be nothing out of the way," he urged, "surely
+no one could have anything to fear or object to."
+
+"Nobody has anything to fear in any case," said Bennett, "but any
+gentleman--and I, most decidedly--would object to the implication."
+
+At this Keith, stiffened a little in his turn.
+
+"I am sorry we differ on that point, I have good reason to believe
+there has been crooked work somewhere in this Cora trial. I do not know
+who has done it; I accuse nobody; but in the public office I hold it
+seems my plain duty to investigate."
+
+"Yo' public duty is to prosecute, that is all," argued Bennett. "It is
+the duty of the grand jury to investigate or to order investigations."
+
+Here spoke the spirit of the law, for technically Bennett was correct.
+
+"Whatever the rigid interpretation"--Keith found himself uttering
+heresy--"I still feel it my duty to deal personally with whatever seems
+to me unjustly to interfere with, proper convictions." Then he stopped,
+aghast at the tremendous step he had taken. For to a man trained as was
+Keith, in a time when all men were created for the law, and not the law
+for men, in a society where the lawyer was considered the greatest
+citizen, and subtle technicality paramount to justice or commonsense,
+this was a tremendous step. At that moment, and by that spontaneous and
+unconsidered statement, Keith, unknown to himself, passed from one side
+to the other in the great social struggle that was impending.
+
+"I wa'n you, suh," Bennett was repeating, "yo' course will not meet
+with the approval of the members of the bar."
+
+"I am sorry, Cal," said Keith sadly.
+
+Bennett rose, bowed stiffly, and turned to the door. But suddenly he
+whirled back, his face alight with feeling.
+
+"Oh, see heah, Milt, be sensible!" he cried. "I know just how yo're
+feelin' now. Yo're sore, and I don't blame you. You put ap a hard
+fight, and though you got licked, I don't mind tellin' you that the
+whole bar appreciates yo're brilliant work. You must remember you had
+to play a lone hand against pretty big men--the biggest we've got! We
+all appreciate the odds. Cora has lots of friends. You'll never convict
+him, Milt; but go in again for another trial, if it will do yo're
+feelin's any good, with our best wishes. Only don't let gettin' licked
+make you so sore! Don't go buttin' yo're haid at yo're friends! Be a
+spo't!"
+
+A half hour ago this appeal might have gained a response if not a
+practical effect, but the spiritual transformation in Keith was
+complete.
+
+"I'm sorry," he replied simply, "but I must go ahead in my own way."
+
+Calhoun Bennett's face lost its glow, and his tall figure stiffened.
+
+"I must wa'n you not to bring my name into this," said he. "I do not
+intend to have my reputation sacrificed to yo' strait-laced Yankee
+conscience. If my name is ever mentioned, I shall hold you responsible,
+_personally_ responsible. You understand, suh?"
+
+He stood stiff and straight, staring at Keith. Keith did not stir.
+After a moment Calhoun Bennett went out.
+
+
+
+
+XLV
+
+
+After this interview Keith experienced a marked and formal coldness
+from nearly all of his old associates, Those with whom he came into
+direct personal contact showed him scrupulous politeness, but confined
+their conversation to the briefest necessary words, and quit him as
+soon as possible. He found himself very much alone, for at this period
+he had lost the confidence of one faction and had not yet gained that
+of the other.
+
+His investigations encountered always increasing difficulties. In his
+own department he could obtain little assistance. A dead inertia
+opposed all his efforts. Nevertheless, he went ahead doggedly, using
+Krafft and some of Krafft's proteges to considerable effect.
+
+But soon pressure was brought on him from a new direction: his
+opponents struck at him through his home.
+
+For some days Nan had been aware of a changed atmosphere in the society
+she frequented and had heretofore led. The change was subtle, defied
+analysis, but was to the woman's sensitive instincts indubitable. At
+first she had been inclined to consider it subjective, to imagine that
+something wrong with herself must be projecting itself through her
+imagination; but finally she realized that the impression was well
+based. In people's attitude there was nothing overt; it was rather a
+withdrawl of intimacy, a puzzling touch of formality. She seemed
+overnight to have lost in popularity.
+
+Truth to tell, she paid little attention to this. By now she was
+experienced enough in human nature to understand and to be able to
+gauge the slight fluctuations, the ebbs and flows of esteem, the
+kaleidoscopic shiftings and realignments of the elements of frivolous
+and formal society. Mrs. Brown had hired away Mrs. Smith's best
+servant; for an hour they looked askance on Mrs. Brown; then, the
+episode forgotten, Mrs. Brown's cork bobbed to the surface company of
+all the other corks. It was very trivial. Besides, just at this moment,
+Nan was wholly occupied with preparations for her first "afternoon" of
+the year. She intended as usual to give three of these formal affairs,
+and from them the season took its tone. The list was necessarily far
+from exclusive, but Nan made up for that by the care she gave her most
+original arrangements. She prided herself on doing things simply, but
+with a difference, calling heavily on her resources of correspondence,
+her memory, and her very good imagination for some novelty of food or
+entertainment. At the first of these receptions, too, she wore always
+for the first time some new and marvellous toilet straight from Paris,
+the style of which had not been shown to even her most intimate
+friends. This year, for example, she had done the most obvious and,
+therefore, the most unlikely thing: she had turned to the
+contemporaneous Spanish for her theme. Nobody had thought of that. The
+Colonial, the Moorish, the German, the Russian, the Hungarian--all the
+rest of the individual or "picturesque"--but nobody had thought to look
+next door. Nan had decorated the rooms with yellow and red, hung the
+walls with riatas, strings of red peppers and the like, obtained
+Spanish guitar players, and added enough fiery Mexican dishes to the
+more digestible refreshments to emphasize the Spanish flavour. She wore
+a dress of golden satin, a wreath of coral flowers about her hair, and
+morocco slippers matched in hue.
+
+The afternoon was fine. People were slow in coming. A few of the
+nondescripts that must be invited on such occasions put in an
+appearance, responded hastily to their hostess's greeting, and wandered
+about furtively but interminably. Patricia Sherwood, who had come
+early, circulated nobly, trying to break up the frozen little groups,
+but in vain. The time passed. More non-descripts--and not a soul else!
+As five o'clock neared, a cold fear clutched at Nan's heart. No one was
+coming!
+
+She worked hard to cover with light graciousness the cold-hearted
+dismay that filled her breast as the party dragged its weary length
+away. All her elaborate preparations and decorations seemed to mock
+her. The Spanish orchestra tinkled away gayly until she felt she could
+throw something at them; the caterer's servants served solemnly the
+awed nondescripts. Nan's cheeks burned and her throat choked with
+unshed tears. She could not bear to look at Patsy Sherwood, who
+remained tactfully distant.
+
+About five-thirty the door opened to admit a little group, at the sight
+of whom Nan uttered a short, hysterical chuckle. Then she glided to
+meet them, both hands outstretched in welcome, Mrs. Sherwood watched
+her with admiration. Nan was game.
+
+There were three in the party: Mrs. Morrell, Sally Warner, and Mrs.
+Scattergood. Sally Warner was of the gushing type of tall, rather
+desiccated femininity who always knows you so much better than you know
+her, who cultivates you every moment for a week and forgets you for
+months on end, who is hard up and worldly and therefore calculating,
+whose job is to amuse people and who will therefore sacrifice her best,
+perhaps not most useful, friend to an epigram, whose wit is barbed, who
+has a fine nose for trouble, and who is always in at the death. Mrs.
+Scattergood was a small blond woman, high voiced, precise in manner,
+very positive in her statements which she delivered in a drawling tone,
+humourless, inquisitive about petty affairs, the sort of "good woman"
+with whom no fault can be found, but who drives men to crime. Mrs.
+Morrell we know.
+
+These three, after greeting their hostess gushingly, circulated
+compactly, talking to each other in low voices. Nan knew they were
+watching her, and that they had come for the sole purpose of getting
+first-hand details of her fiasco for later recounting in drawing-rooms
+where, undoubtedly, even now awaited eager auditors. She came to a
+decision. The matter could not be worse. When, the three came to make
+their farewells, she detained them.
+
+"No, I'm not going to let you go yet," she told them, perhaps a little
+imperiously. "I haven't had half a visit with you. Wait until this
+rabble clears out."
+
+She hesitated a moment over Mrs. Sherwood, but finally let her go
+without protest. When the last guest had departed she sank into a
+chair. As she was already on the verge of hysterics, she easily kept up
+an air of gayety.
+
+"Girls, what an awful party!" she cried. "I could tear my hair! It was
+a perfect nightmare." Struggling to control her voice and keep back her
+tears, she added abruptly: "Now tell me what it is all about."
+
+Mrs. Morrell and Sally Warner were plainly uneasy and at a loss how to
+meet this situation, but Mrs. Scattergood remained quite composed in
+her small, compact way.
+
+"What's what all about, Nan, dear?" asked Sally Warner in her most
+vivacious manner. She keenly felt the dramatic situation and was
+already visualizing herself in the role of raconteuse.
+
+"You know perfectly well. Why this funeral? Where are they all? Why did
+they stay away? I have a right to know."
+
+"I'm sure there's nothing _I_ can think of!" replied Sally
+artificially. "The idea!"
+
+But Mrs. Scattergood, with all the relish of performing a noble and
+disagreeable duty, broke in:
+
+"You know, dear," she said in her didactic, slow voice, "as well as we
+do, what the world is. Of course _we_ understand, but people will talk!"
+
+"In heaven's name what are you driving at? What are they talking
+about?" demanded Nan, as Mrs. Scattergood apparently came to a full
+stop.
+
+A pause ensued while Sally and Mrs. Scattergood exchanged glances with
+Mrs. Morrell.
+
+"Well," at last said Sally, judicially, buttoning her glove, her head
+on one side, "if I had a nice husband like yours, I wouldn't let him
+run around getting himself disliked for nothing."
+
+"You ought to use your influence with him before it is too late," added
+Mrs. Morrell.
+
+Nan looked helplessly from one to the other, too uncertain of her
+ground now to risk another step.
+
+"So that's it," she ventured at last. "Some one has been telling lies
+about us!"
+
+"Oh, dear no!" disclaimed Mrs. Scattergood, "It is only that your
+friends cannot understand your taking sides against them. Naturally
+they feel hurt. Forgive me, dear--you know I say it with all
+affection--but don't you think it a mistake?"
+
+Nan was thoroughly dazed and mystified, but afraid to press the matter
+further. She had a suspicion Mrs. Morrell was again responsible for her
+difficulties, but was too uncertain to urge them to stay for further
+elucidation. They arose. These were the days of hoop skirts, and the
+set of the outer skirt had to be carefully adjusted before going out.
+As they posed in turn before the hall pier glass they chattered. "How
+lovely the house looks." "You certainly have worked hard, and must be
+tired, poor dear!" "Well, we'll see you to-morrow at Mrs. Terry's.
+You're _not asked_? Surely there is some mistake! Well, those things
+always happen in a big affair, don't they?" "See you soon." "Good-bye."
+"Good-bye."
+
+Outside the house they paused at the head of the steps.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" said Sally. "I really believe the
+poor thing doesn't know, I believe I'll just drop in for a minute at
+Mrs. Caldwell's. Sorry you're not going my way."
+
+After a fashion Nan felt relieved by this interview, for she thought
+she discerned only Mrs. Morrell's influence, and this, she knew, she
+could easily overcome. While she waited for Keith's return from
+whatever inaccessible fastnesses he always occupied during these big
+afternoon receptions, she reviewed the situation, her indignation
+mounting. Downstairs, Wing Sam and his temporary assistants were
+clearing things away. Usually Nan superintended this, but to-day she
+did not care. When Keith finally entered the room, she burst out on him
+with a rapid and angry account of the whole situation as she saw it;
+but to her surprise he did not rise to it. His weary, spiritless,
+uninterested: acceptance of it astonished her to the last degree. To
+him her entanglement with the Cora affair--for at once he saw the trend
+of it all--seemed the last straw. Not even his own home was sacred. His
+spirit was so bruised and wearied that he actually could not rise to an
+explanation. He seemed to realize an utter hopelessness of making her
+see his point of view. This was not so strange when it is considered
+that this point of view, however firmly settled, was still a new and
+unexplained fact with himself. He contented himself with saying: "The
+Morrells had nothing whatever to do with it." It was the only thing
+that occurred to him as worth saying; but it was unfortunate, for it
+left Nan's irritation without logical support. Naturally that
+irritation was promptly transferred to him.
+
+"Then what, in heaven's name, is it?" she demanded. "My friends are all
+treating me as if I had the smallpox."
+
+"Cheerful lot of friends we've made in this town!" he said bitterly.
+
+"What is the matter with them?" she persisted.
+
+"The matter is they've taken me for a fool they could order around to
+suit themselves. They found they couldn't. Now they're through with me,
+even Cal Bennett," he added in a lower tone that revealed his hurt.
+
+She paused, biting her underlip.
+
+"Is the trouble anything to do with this Cora case?" she asked,
+suddenly enlightened by some vague, stray recollection.
+
+"Of course!" he replied crossly, exasperated at the nagging necessity
+of arousing himself to explanations. "There's no use arguing about it.
+I'm going to see it through in spite of that hound McDougall and his
+whole pack of curs!"
+
+"But why have you turned so against your friends?" she asked more
+gently, struck by his careworn look as he sprawled in the easy chair
+under the lamp. "I don't see! You'll get yourself disliked!"
+
+She did not press the matter further for the moment, but three days
+later she brought up the topic again. In the interim she had heard
+considerable direct and indirect opinion. She selected after dinner as
+the most propitious time for discussion. As a matter of fact, earlier
+in the day would have been better, before Keith's soul had been rubbed
+raw by downtown attrition.
+
+"I don't believe you quite realize how strongly people feel about the
+Cora case," she began. "Isn't it possible to drop it or compromise it
+or something, Milton?"
+
+In the reaction from argument and--coldness downtown he felt he could
+stand no more of it at home.
+
+"I wish you'd let that matter drop!" he said decidedly. "You couldn't
+understand it."
+
+She hesitated. A red spot appeared in either cheek.
+
+"I must say I _don't_ understand!" she countered. "It is inconceivable
+to me that a man like you should turn so easily against his class!"
+
+"My class?" he echoed wearily.
+
+"What do such creatures as Cora and Yankee Sullivan amount to?" she
+cried hotly, "I suppose you'll say _they_ are in your class next! How
+you can consider them of sufficient importance to go dead against your
+best friends on their account!"
+
+"It is because I am right and they are wrong."
+
+She was a little carried beyond herself.
+
+"Well, they all think the same way," she pointed out. "Aren't you a
+little--a little--"
+
+"Pig-headed," supplied Keith bitterly.
+
+"--to put your opinion against theirs?" she finished.
+
+Keith did not reply.
+
+This was Nan's last attempt. She did not bring up the subject again.
+But she withdrew proudly and completely from all participation in
+society. She refused herself to callers. Once the situation was
+thoroughly defined, she accepted it. If her husband decided to play the
+game in this way, she, too, would follow, whether she approved or not.
+Nan was loyal and a thoroughbred. And she was either too proud or too
+indifferent to fight it out with the other women, in the rough and
+tumble of social ambition.
+
+
+
+
+XLVI
+
+
+In this voluntary seclusion Nan saw laterally only two persons. One of
+these was Mrs. Sherwood. The ex-gambler's wife called frequently; and,
+for some reason, Nan never refused to see her, although she did not
+make her visitor particularly welcome. Often an almost overmastering
+impulse seized her to open her soul to this charming, sympathetic,
+tactful woman, but something always restrained her. Her heart was too
+sore. And since an inhibited impulse usually expresses itself by
+contraries, her attitude was of studied and aloof politeness. Mrs.
+Sherwood never seemed to notice this. She sat in the high-ceilinged
+"parlour," with its strange fresco of painted fish-nets, and chatted on
+in a cheerful monologue, detailing small gossipy items of news. She
+always said goodbye cordially, and went out with a wonderful assumption
+of ignorance that anything was wrong. Her visits did Nan good, although
+never could the latter break through the ice wall of reserve. Nan's
+conscience often hurt her that she could answer this genuine friendship
+with so little cordiality. She wondered dully how Mrs. Sherwood could
+bring herself to be so good to so cross-grained a creature as herself.
+As a matter of fact, the women were marking time in their
+relations--Mrs. Sherwood consciously, Nan unconsciously--until better
+days.
+
+The other regular caller was Ben Sansome. His attitude was in some
+sense detached. He was quietly, deeply sympathetic in his manner, never
+obtrusive, never even hinting in words at his knowledge of the state of
+affairs, but managing in some subtle manner to convey the impression
+that he alone fully understood. Nan found that, without her
+realization, almost in spite of herself, Sansome had managed to isolate
+her with himself on a little island of mutual understanding, apart from
+all the rest of the world.
+
+Her life was now becoming circumscribed. Household, books, some small
+individual charities, and long afternoon walks filled her days. At
+first Sansome had accompanied her on these tramps, but the unfailing,
+almost uncanny insight of the man told him that at such times her
+spirit really craved solitude, so he soon tactfully ceased all attempts
+to join her. Her usual walk was over the cliffs toward the bay, where,
+from some of the elevations near Russian Hill, she could look out to
+the Golden Gate, or across to Tamalpais or the Contra Costa shores. The
+crawl of the distant blue water, the flash of wing or sail, the taste
+of salt rime, the canyon shadows of the hills, the flying murk, or the
+last majestic and magnificent blotting out of the world as the legions
+of sea fog overtoiled it, all answered or soothed moods in her spirit.
+Sometimes she forgot herself and overstayed the daylight. At such times
+she scuttled home half fearfully for the great city, like a jungle
+beast, was most dangerous at night.
+
+One evening, returning thus in haste, she was lured aside by the clang
+of bells and the glare of a fire. No child ever resisted that
+combination, and Nan was still a good deal of a child. Almost before
+she knew, it she was wedged fast in a crowd. The pressure was
+suffocating; and, to her alarm, she found herself surrounded by a
+rough-looking set of men. They were probably harmless workingmen, but
+Nan did not know that. She became frightened, and tried to escape, but
+her strength was not equal to it. Near the verge of panic, she was
+fairly on the point of struggling, when she felt an arm thrown around
+her shoulder. She looked up with a cry, to meet Ben Sansome's brown
+eyes.
+
+"Don't be afraid; I'm here," he said soothingly.
+
+In the revulsion Nan fairly thrilled under the touch of his manly,
+protection. This impulse was followed instantly, by an instinct of
+withdrawal from the embrace about her shoulder, which was in turn
+succeeded by a fierce scorn of being prudish in such circumstances.
+Sansome masterfully worked her out through the press. At the last
+tactful moment he withdrew his arm. She thanked him, still a little
+frightened.
+
+"It was certainly lucky you happened to be here!" she ended.
+
+"Lucky!" he laughed briefly. "I knew that sooner or later you'd need
+me."
+
+He stopped at that, but allowed her questions to elicit the fact that
+every afternoon he had followed her at a discreet distance,
+scrupulously respecting her privacy, but ready for the need that sooner
+or later must surely arrive. Nan was touched.
+
+"You have no right to endanger yourself this way!" he cried, as though
+carried away. "It is not just to those who care for you!" and by the
+tone of his voice, the look of his eye, the slight emphasizing pressure
+of his hand he managed to convey to her, but in a manner to which she
+could not possibly object, his belief that his last phrase referred
+more to himself than to any one else in the world.
+
+It was about this period that John Sherwood, dressing for dinner,
+remarked to his wife:
+
+"Patsy, the more I see of you the more I admire you. Do you remember
+that Firemen's Ball when you started in to break up that Keith-Morrell
+affair? He dropped her so far that I haven't heard her _plunk_ yet! I
+don't know what made me think of it--it was a long time ago."
+
+"Yes, that was all right," she replied thoughtfully, "but I'm not as
+pleased as I might be with the Keith situation."
+
+Sherwood stopped tying his cravat and turned to face her.
+
+"He's perfectly straight, I assure you," he said earnestly. "I don't
+believe he knows that any other woman but his wife exists. I _know_
+that. But I wish he'd go a little easier with the men."
+
+"Oh, I wasn't thinking of him. She's the culprit now."
+
+"What!" cried Sherwood, astonished, "that little innocent baby!"
+
+"That 'little innocent baby' is seeing altogether too much of Ben
+Sansome."
+
+Sherwood uttered a snort of masculine scorn.
+
+"Ho! Ben Sansome?"
+
+"Yes, Ben Sansome."
+
+"Why, he's a notorious butterfly."
+
+"Well, it looks now as though he intended to alight."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+She nodded. Sherwood slowly went on with his dressing.
+
+"I like that little creature," he said at last. "She's the sort that
+strikes me as born to be treated well and to be happy. Some people are
+that way, you know; just as others are born painters or plumbers." She
+nodded in appreciation. "And if you give the word, Patsy, I'll go
+around and have a word with Keith--or spoil Sansome--whichever you
+say----"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"You're a dear, Jack, but if you love me, keep your hands off here."
+
+"Are you bossing this job?" he asked gravely.
+
+"I'm bossing this job," she repeated, with equal gravity.
+
+He said nothing more for a time, but his eyes twinkled.
+
+
+
+
+XLVII
+
+
+Keith's investigations proceeded until at last he felt justified in
+preferring before the Bar Association charges of irregular practice
+against James Ware, Bernard Black, and--to his great regret--Calhoun
+Bennett. He conceived he had enough evidence to convict these men
+legally, but he as yet shrank from asking for an indictment against
+them, preferring at first to try for their discipline before their
+fellow lawyers. If the Bar Association failed, however, he had every
+intention of pressing the matter in the courts.
+
+Almost immediately after the filing of the complaint he was waited on
+in his office by a man only slightly known to him, Major Marmaduke
+Miles. The major's occupation in life was obscure. He was a red-faced,
+tightly buttoned, full-jowled, choleric Southerner of the
+ultra-punctilious brand, always well dressed in quaint and rather
+old-fashioned garments, with charming manners, and the reminiscence of
+good looks lost in a florid and apoplectic habit. This person entered
+Keith's office, greeted him formally, declined a chair. Standing very
+erect before Keith's desk, his beaver hat poised on his left forearm,
+he said:
+
+"I am requested, suh, to enquiah of yo' the name of a friend with whom
+I can confer."
+
+"If that means a challenge, Major, I must first ask the name of your
+principal," returned Keith.
+
+"I am actin' fo' Mr. Calhoun Bennett, suh," stated the major.
+
+"Tell Cal Bennett I will not fight him," said Keith quietly.
+
+The major was plainly flabbergasted, and for a moment puffed his red
+cheeks in and out rapidly.
+
+"You mean to tell me, suh, that yo' refuse the satisfaction due a
+gentleman after affrontin' him?"
+
+"I won't fight Cal Bennett," repeated Keith patiently.
+
+The major turned even redder, and swelled so visibly that Keith, in
+spite of his sad realization of the gravity of the affair, caught
+himself guiltily in a boyish anticipation that some of the major's
+strained buttons would pop.
+
+"I shall so repo't to my principal, suh. But I may add, suh, that in my
+opinion, suh, yo' are conductin' yo'self in a manner unbecomin' to a
+gentleman; and othuh gentlemen will say so, suh! They may go even
+farthah and stigmatize yo' conduct as cowardly, suh! And it might even
+be that I, suh, would agree with that expression, suh!"
+
+The major glowered. Keith smiled wearily. It did not to him at the
+moment that this would be so great a calamity.
+
+"I am sorry to have forfeited your good opinion, Major," he contented
+himself with saying.
+
+The major marched straight back to the Monumental, where Bennett and a
+number of friends were awaiting the result of his mission. The major's
+angry passions had been rising, every foot of the way.
+
+"He won't fight, suh!" he bellowed, slamming his cane across the table.
+"He won't fight! And I stigmatized him to his face as a white-livered
+hound!"
+
+Calhoun Bennett sank back pale, and speechless. His companions deluged
+him with advice.
+
+"Horsewhip the craven publicly." "Warn him to go heeled, and then force
+the issue!" "Shoot him down like the dog he is!"
+
+But the major's mighty bellow dominated everything.
+
+"I claim the privilege!" he roared. "Egad, I _demand_ the privilege! It
+is my right! I am insulted by such a rebuff! Now that I have acquitted
+myself of Cal's errand, I will call him out myself. Ain't that right,
+Cal? I'll make the hound fight!"
+
+The old major looked redder and fiercer than ever. There could be no
+doubt that he would make any one fight, once he started out to do so,
+and that he would carry the matter through. He was brave enough.
+
+But little Jimmy Ware, who had been doing some thinking, here spoke up.
+It seemed to him a good chance to get a reputation without any risk.
+Since James King of William had uncompromisingly refused to fight
+duels, his example had been followed. A strong party of those having
+conscientious scruples against the practice had come into being.
+Keith's refusal to fight Bennett, to Ware's mind, indicated that he
+belonged to this class. It looked safe.
+
+"Pardon me, Major," he broke in suavely; "but each in turn. I claim the
+right. Cal had first chance because he had personally warned the man of
+the consequences. But I am equally accused. You must admit my prior
+claim."
+
+The major came off the boil. Puffing his red cheeks in and out he
+considered.
+
+"Yo're right, suh," he conceded reluctantly.
+
+After considerable persuasion, and some flattery as to his familiarity
+with the niceties of the Code, the major consented to bear Jimmy's
+defiance. He entered Keith's office again, stiffer than a ramrod. Keith
+smiled at him.
+
+"There's no use, Major, I won't fight Cal Bennett," he greeted his
+visitor.
+
+"I am the bearer of a challenge from Mistah James Ware," he announced.
+
+"What!" yelled Keith, so suddenly and violently that Major Miles
+recoiled a step.
+
+"From Mistah James Ware," he repeated.
+
+Keith laughed savagely.
+
+"Oh, I'll fight him," he growled; "gladly; any time he wants it."
+
+The major's face lit up.
+
+"If you'll name yo' friend, suh," he suggested.
+
+"Friend? Friend? What for? I'm capable of arranging this. I haven't
+time to hunt up a friend."
+
+"It's customary," objected the major.
+
+"Look here," Keith swept on, "I'm the challenged party and I have the
+say-so, haven't I?"
+
+"Yo' can name the weapons," conceded Major Marmaduke Miles.
+
+"All right, we'll call this revolvers, navy revolvers--biggest there
+are, whatever that is. And close up. None of your half-mile shooting."
+
+"Ten yards," suggested Major Miles with unholy joy.
+
+"And right away--this afternoon," went on Keith. "If that little runt
+wants trouble, egad he's going to have all his little skin will hold."
+
+But the major would not have this. It was not done. He waived
+conducting his negotiations through a second, but that was as far as
+his conventional soul would go. He held out for three o'clock the
+following afternoon.
+
+"And I wish to apologize, Mistah Keith," he said, on parting, "fo' my
+ill-considered words of a short time ago. I misunderstood yo' reasons
+fo' refusin' to fight Mistah Bennett."
+
+He bowed his rotund, tightly buttoned little figure and departed, to
+strike Jimmy Ware with complete consternation.
+
+Duels in the fifties were almost an acknowledged public institution.
+Although technically illegal, no one was ever convicted of any of the
+consequences of such encounters. They were conducted quite openly.
+Indeed, some of the more famous were actively advertised by steamboat
+men, who carried excursions to the field. Keith's acceptance of Ware's
+challenge aroused the keenest interest. Outside the prominence of the
+men involved, a vague feeling was current that in their persons were
+symbolized opposing forces in the city's growth. As yet these forces
+had not segregated to that point where champions were demanded, or
+indeed would be recognized as such, but vague feelings of antagonism,
+of alignments, were abroad. Those who later would constitute the Law
+and Order class generally sympathized with Ware; those whom history was
+to know as the Vigilantes felt stirrings of partisanship for Keith.
+Therefore, the following afternoon a small flotilla set sail for the
+Contra Costa shore, and a crowd of several hundred spectators
+disembarked at the chosen duelling ground.
+
+Nan knew nothing of all this. Keith was now in such depths of low
+spirits that his wearied soul did not much care what became of him. He
+put his affairs in shape, shrugged his shoulders, and went to the
+encounter with absolute indifference.
+
+The preliminaries were soon over. Keith found himself facing Jimmy Ware
+at the distance he had himself chosen. A double line of spectators
+stood at a respectful space on either side. Major Miles and an
+acquaintance of Keith's who had volunteered to act for him were posted
+nearer at hand. Keith had listened attentively to the instructions. The
+word was to be given--_one, two, three. Fire!_ Between the first and
+last words the duellists were to discharge the first shot from their
+weapons. After that they were to fire at will. One shot would have
+sufficed Jimmy Ware; but Keith, without emotion, filed with a dead
+indifference to any possible danger and a savage contempt for the whole
+proceedings, had insisted on the full measure. He was totally
+unaccustomed to weapons. At the word of command he raised the revolver
+and fired, carelessly but coolly, and without result. One after the
+other he discharged the six chambers of his weapon, aiming as well as
+he knew how. It did not occur to him that Ware was firing at him. After
+the sixth miss he threw the revolver away in cold disgust.
+
+"This is a farce," said he, "and I'm not going to be fool enough to
+take part in it any longer."
+
+Jimmy Ware, delighted at finding himself unharmed, and confident now
+that bluff would go, started to say something lofty and disdainful.
+Keith whirled back on him.
+
+"If you want 'satisfaction,' as you call it, you'll get it, and you'll
+get it plenty! I'm sick of being made a fool of. Just open your ugly
+head to me again, and I'll knock it off your shoulders!" His eye
+smouldered dangerously, and Jimmy Ware, very uncertain in his mind,
+took refuge in a haughty look. Keith glared at him moment, then turned
+to the crowd: "I'll give all of you fair warning," said he. "I'm going
+to do my legal duty in all things; and I'm not going to fight duels.
+Anybody who interferes with me is going to get into trouble!"
+
+An uproar ensued. All this was most irregular, unprecedented, a
+disgrace to a gentlemen's meeting. The major roared like a bull. If a
+man would not fight, would not defend his actions, how could a
+gentleman get at him except by street brawling or assassination, and
+both of these were repugnant to finer feelings. A dozen fire-eaters
+felt themselves personally insulted. The crowd surrounded Keith,
+shouting at him, jostling him, threatening. A cool, somewhat amused
+voice broke in.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Talbot Ward, in so decided a tone that they turned to
+hear. "I am a neutral non-partisan in this little war, I am for neither
+party, for neither opinion, in the matter. I, like Mr. Keith, never
+fight duels. But may I suggest--merely in the interest of fair
+play--that for the moment you are forgetting yourselves? My opinion
+coincides with Mr. Keith's that duelling is a foolish sort of game, but
+it is a game, and recognized; and if you are going to play it, why not
+stick to its rules? Mr. Keith, and Mr. Ware have exchanged shots. Mr.
+Ware has therefore had 'satisfaction.' Now Mr. Keith and I going to
+walk--quietly--to the boat. We do not expect to be molested."
+
+"By God, Tal!" cried Major Miles in astonishment, "ye' don't mean to
+tell me yo're linin' yourself up on the side of that blackleg!"
+
+"Well," put in a new voice, a very cheerful voice, "I don't pretend to
+be neutral, and I'd just as lief fight duels as not, and I'm willing to
+state to you all that though I don't know a damn thing about this case
+nor its merits, I like this man's style. And I'm ready to state that
+I'll take his place and fight any--or all of you--right here and now.
+You, Major?"
+
+All eyes turned to him. He was a dark, eager youth, standing with his
+slouch hat in his hand, his head thrown back, his mop of shiny black
+hair tossed from his forehead, his eyes glowing. The major hummed and
+fussed.
+
+"I have absolutely no quarrel with you, suh!" he said.
+
+"Nor with my friend yonder?" insisted the newcomer.
+
+"I should esteem it beneath my dignity to fight with a craven and a
+coward, suh!" the major saved his face.
+
+The stranger glanced at Keith, an amused light in his eyes.
+
+"We'll let it go at that," he conceded. "Anybody else?" he challenged,
+eying them.
+
+Every one seemed busy getting ready to go home, and appeared not to
+hear him. After a moment he put on his felt hat and joined Keith and
+Ward, who were walking slowly toward the landing.
+
+"Well," remarked a rough-looking Yankee--our old friend Graves of the
+Eurekas to his friend Carter--"I didn't know anything would cool off
+the major like that!"
+
+"I reckon the major knew who he was talking to," replied Carter.
+
+"Who is the cuss? I never saw him before."
+
+"Don't you know him? I reckon you must have heard of him, anyway. He's
+just down from the Sierra. That's the express rider, Johnny
+Fairfax--Diamond Jack, they call him."
+
+Graves whistled an enlightened whistle.
+
+
+
+
+XLVIII
+
+
+Johnny Fairfax accompanied Keith all the way back to his office,
+although Talbot Ward said good-bye at the wharves. He bubbled over with
+conversation and enthusiasm, and seemed to have taken a great fancy to
+the lawyer. The theme of his glancing talk was the duel, over which he
+was immensely amused; but from it he diverged on the slightest occasion
+to comment on whatever for the moment struck his notice.
+
+"That was certainly the rottenest shooting I ever saw!" he exclaimed
+over and over, and then would go off into peals of laughter. "I don't
+see how twelve shots at that distance could miss! After the second
+exchange I concluded even the side line wasn't safe, and I got behind a
+tree. Pays to be prompt In your decision; there were a hundred
+applicants for that tree a moment later, The bloodless duel as a
+parlour amusement! You ought to have charged that large and respectable
+audience an admission fee! That's a good idea; I'll present it to you!
+If you ever have another due, you must have a good manager! There's
+money in it!"
+
+Keith laughed a trifle ruefully,
+
+"I suppose it was funny," he acknowledged.
+
+"Now don't get huffy," begged Johnny Fairfax. "What you ought to do is
+to learn to shoot. You'll probably need to know how if you keep on
+living around here," His eye fell on a shooting gallery. "Come in
+here," he urged impulsively.
+
+The proprietor was instructed to load his pistols and for a dozen shots
+Keith was coached vehemently in the elementals of shooting--taught at
+least the theory of pulling steadily, of coordinating various muscles
+and psychological processes that were not at all used to coordination.
+He learned that mere steady aiming was a small part of it.
+
+"Anybody can do wonderful shooting with an empty pistol," said Johnny
+contemptuously. "And anybody can hold as steady as a rock--until he
+pulls the trigger."
+
+"It's interesting," conceded Keith; "mighty interesting. I didn't know
+there was so much to it."
+
+"Of course it's interesting," said Johnny. "And you're only at the
+rudiments. Look here!"
+
+And, to the astonishment of Keith, the worshipful adoration of the
+shooting-gallery proprietor, and the awe of the usual audience that
+gathered at the sound of the reports, he proceeded to give an
+exhibition of the skill that had made him famous. The shooting
+galleries of those days used no puny twenty-twos. Derringers, pocket
+revolvers, and the huge "navies" were at hand--with reduced loads,
+naturally--for those who in habitual life affected these weapons.
+Johnny shot with all of them, displaying the tricks of the gunman with
+all the naive enthusiasm of youth. His manner throughout was that
+engaging mixture of modesty afraid of being thought conceited and eager
+pride in showing his skill so attractive to everybody. At first he shot
+deliberately, splitting cards, hitting marbles, and devastating whole
+rows of clay pipes. Then he took to secreting the weapons in various
+pockets from which he produced and discharged them in lightning time.
+His hand darted with the speed and precision of a snake's head.
+
+"I've just been fooling with shooting things tossed in the air," he
+said, exuberant with enthusiasm. "But I'm afraid we can't try that
+here."
+
+"I'm afraid not," agreed the proprietor regretfully.
+
+"It really isn't very hard, once you get the knack."
+
+"Oh, no," said the proprietor with elaborate sarcasm. "Say," he went on
+earnestly, "I suppose it ain't no use trying to hire you--"
+
+Johnny shook his head, smiling.
+
+"I was afraid not," observed the proprietor disappointedly. "You'd be
+the making of this place. Drop in any time you want practice. Won't
+cost you a cent. Would you mind telling me your name?"
+
+"Fairfax," replied Johnny, gruffly embarrassed.
+
+"Not Diamond Jack?" hesitated the proprietor.
+
+"I'm sometimes called that," conceded Johnny, still more gruffly. "How
+much is it?"
+
+"Not one gosh-danged continental red cent," cried the man, "and I'm
+pleased to meet you."
+
+Johnny shook his extended hand, mumbled something, and bolted for the
+street. Keith followed, laughing.
+
+"It seems you're quite a celebrity," he observed.
+
+But Johnny refused to pursue that subject.
+
+"You come with me and buy you a pistol," he growled. "You ought not to
+be allowed loose. You're as helpless as a baby."
+
+Johnny picked out a small .31 calibre revolver and a supply of
+ammunition.
+
+"Now you practise!" was his final warning and advice.
+
+Keith went home with a new glow at his heart. He was ripe for a friend.
+
+Johnny seemed to have little to do for the moment. He never volunteered
+information as to his business or his plans, and Keith never inquired.
+But the young express rider fell into the habit of dropping in at
+Keith's office. He was always very apologetic and solicitous as to
+whether or no he was interrupting, saying that he had stopped for only
+ten seconds; but he invariably ended in the swivel chair with a good
+cigar. Keith was at this time busy; but he was never too busy for
+Johnny Fairfax. The latter was a luxury to which he treated himself.
+Johnny was not only welcome because he was practically Keith's only
+friend, but also his frank and engaging comments on men and things were
+gradually giving the harassed lawyer a new point of view on the society
+in which he found himself. Keith, as a newcomer in a community already
+established, had naturally accepted the prominent figures in that
+community as he would have accepted prominent figures anywhere: that
+is, as respectable, formidable, admirable, solid, unquestioned pillars
+of society. He was of a modest disposition and disinclined to question.
+He respected them as any modest young man respects those older and more
+successful than himself. For the same reason he accepted their views
+and their authority; or, if he questioned them, he did so sadly, almost
+guiltily, with many heart-searchings.
+
+But Johnny Fairfax held no such attitude. Not he! The city's great
+names had scant respect from him! Not for an instant did he hesitate to
+criticise or analyze the most renowned. It was not long before he
+learned all about the Cora trial and Keith's subsequent efforts to
+discipline McDougall and his associates.
+
+"I hope you get 'em!" said he; "the whole lot! I don't know much about
+this McDougall; but I do know his friends, and most of 'em aren't worth
+thinkin' about. They're big people here, but back where I came from, in
+old Virginia, the best of 'em wouldn't be overseers on a plantation.
+That's why they like it so much out here. Look at that gang! Casey has
+been in the penitentiary, Rowlee ran some little blackleg sheet down
+South until they run him out---I tell you, sir, as a Southerner I'm not
+proud of the Southerners out here. They're a cheap lot, most of 'em.
+They were a cheap lot home. The only difference is that back there
+everybody knew it, and out here everybody thinks they're great people
+because they get up on their hind legs and say so out loud. That old
+bluff, Major Miles, he was put out of a Richmond club, sir, for
+cheatin' at cards--I know that for a fact!"
+
+Somehow, this frank criticism was like a breeze of fresh air to Keith:
+it put new courage into him. Johnny Fairfax had no interests in the
+city; he had no fear; his viewpoint was free from all sham; he was
+newly in from the outside. Through his eyes things fell into
+perspective. Suddenly San Francisco upper society became to Keith what
+it really was: a welter of cheap, bragging, venal, self-seeking men,
+with here and there an honest fine character standing high above. And
+he began, but dimly, to see that the real men of the place were not--as
+yet--well known. Probably one of the most impressive and typical
+figures of the time was Justice of the Supreme Court Terry. In the eyes
+of those too close to events to have a clear sense of proportion, he
+was one of the great men of his period. Courtly, handsome, with haughty
+manners, of aristocratic bearing, fiercely proud, touchily quarrelsome
+on "points of honour," generous but a bitter hater, he and his equally
+handsome, proud, and fiery wife were considered by many people of the
+time as embodying the ideal of Southern chivalry. But Johnny Fairfax
+would have none of it.
+
+"He a typical Southern gentleman!" he laughed, "As being born in the
+South myself, I repudiate that! I know too much about Terry. Why, look
+here: he's a good sport, and he's got ability, and he makes friends,
+and he isn't afraid of anything, But then you stop. He's not a
+gentleman! It shows most particularly when he gets mad. Then he'll
+throw over anything--anything--to have his own way. He's a big man now,
+but he won't be knee-high to a June bug before he gets done."
+
+Johnny's prediction was long in fulfilment, but a score of years later
+it came to pass, and Judge Terry's reputation has sunk almost to the
+level of that of his brother on the bench--Judge "Ned" McGowan.
+
+"They're all a bad lot," Johnny finished, "and I hope you lick them!
+You don't know all the good folks in this town yet!"
+
+
+
+
+XLIX
+
+
+Calhoun Bennett dropped the matter, and contented himself with cutting
+Keith dead whenever they happened to meet. Jimmy Ware and Black were
+men of a different sort; indeed McDougall had made them his associates
+mainly because of their knowledge of the city's darker phases and their
+unscrupulousness. In the admirable organization thus sketched Calhoun
+Bennett had acted as a sort of go-between.
+
+After the duel these two precious citizens held many anxious
+consultations. They could not tell just how much evidence Keith had
+succeeded in gathering, but they knew that plenty of it existed. If the
+matter came to an issue, they suspected the consequences might be
+serious. Either Keith or his evidence must in some way be got rid of.
+Black, who was inclined by instinct and training to be direct, was in
+favour of the simple expedient of hiring assassins.
+
+"Won't do," negatived the more astute Ware. "The thing will be traced
+back to us--not legally, of course, but to a moral certainty, and while
+they won't be able to prove anything on us, the state of the public
+mind is such that hell would pop."
+
+"He says he won't fight another duel," said Black doubtfully.
+
+"No."
+
+"We've got to kill him in a street quarrel, then."
+
+"He's got to be killed in a street quarrel," amended Ware, "that's
+certain; but nobody even remotely connected with this Cora trial must
+seem to have anything to do with it. It must have the appearance of a
+private quarrel from away outside. Otherwise----"
+
+"Got anybody in mind?" asked the practical Black.
+
+"Yes, and he ought to be here at any moment."
+
+As though Jimmy Ware's words had been the cue for which he waited,
+Morrell here entered the room.
+
+
+
+
+L
+
+
+
+At three o'clock in the afternoon of May 14, 1856, the current issue of
+the _Bulletin_ was placed on sale. A very few minutes later a copy
+found its way into the hands of James Casey. Casey at that time, in
+addition to his political cares, was editor of a small sheet he called
+the _Sunday Times_. With this he had strenuously supported the extreme
+wing of the Law party, which, as has been explained, comprised also the
+gambling and lawless element. It was suspected by some that his paper
+was more or less subsidized for the purpose, though the probability is
+that Casey found his reward merely in political support. This Casey it
+was who, to his own vast surprise, had at a previous election been
+returned as elected supervisor; although he was not a candidate, his
+name was not on the ticket, and no man could be found who had voted for
+him. Indeed, he was not even a resident of the district. However,
+Yankee Sullivan, who ran the election, said officially the votes had
+been cast for him; so elected he was proclaimed. Undoubtedly he proved
+useful; he had always proved useful at elections elsewhere, seldom
+appearing in person, but adept at selecting suitable agents. His
+methods were devious, dishonest, and rough. He was head of the Crescent
+Fire Engine Company, and was personally popular. In appearance he was a
+short, slight man, with a bright, keen face, a good forehead, a thin
+but florid countenance, dark curly hair, and light blue eyes, a type of
+unscrupulous Irish adventurer with a dash of romantic ideals. Like all
+the gentlemen rovers of his time, he was exceedingly touchy on the
+subject of "honour."
+
+In the _Bulletin_ of the date mentioned James Casey read these words,
+apropos of the threat of one Bagby to shoot Casey on sight:
+
+ It does not matter how bad a man Casey had been, or how much benefit
+ it might be to the public to have him out of the way, we cannot accord
+ to any one citizen the right to kill him, or even beat him, without
+ justifiable provocation. The fact that Casey has been an inmate of
+ Sing Sing prison in New York is no offence against the laws of this
+ State; nor is the fact of his having stuffed himself through the
+ ballot box, as elected to the Board of Supervisors from a district
+ where it is said he was not even a candidate, any justification for
+ Mr. Bagby to shoot Casey, however richly the latter may deserve to
+ have his neck stretched for such fraud on the public.
+
+Casey read this in the full knowledge that thousands of his
+fellow-citizens would also read it. His thin face turned white with
+anger. He crumpled the paper into a ball and hurled it violently into
+the gutter, settled his hat more firmly on his head, and proceeded at
+once to the _Bulletin_ office with the full intention of shooting King
+on sight. Probably he would have done so, save for the accidental
+circumstance that King happened to be busy at a table, his back
+squarely to the door. Casey could not shoot a man in the back without a
+word. He was breathless and stuttering with excitement. King was alone,
+but an open door into an adjoining office permitted two witnesses to
+see and hear.
+
+"What do you mean by that article?" cried Casey in a strangled voice.
+
+King turned slowly, and examined his visitor for a moment.
+
+"What article?" he inquired at last.
+
+"That which says I was formerly an inmate of Sing Sing!"
+
+King gazed at him with a depth of detached, patient sadness in his dark
+eyes.
+
+"Is it not true?" he asked finally.
+
+"That is not the question," retorted Casey, trying again to work
+himself up to the rage in which he had entered. "I do not wish my past
+acts rated up: on that point I am sensitive."
+
+A faint smile came and went on King's lips.
+
+"Are you done?" he asked still quietly;  then, receiving no reply, he
+turned in his chair and leaned forward with a sudden intensity. His
+next words hit with the impact of bullets: "There's the door! Go! Never
+show your face here again!" he commanded.
+
+Casey found himself moving toward the open door. He did not want to do
+this, he wanted to shoot King, or at least to provoke a quarrel, but he
+was for the moment overcome by a stronger personality. At the door he
+gathered himself together a little.
+
+"I'll say in my paper what I please!" he asserted, with a show of
+bravado.
+
+King was leaning back, watching him steadily.
+
+"You have a perfect right to do so," he rejoined. "I shall never notice
+your paper."
+
+Casey struck himself on the breast.
+
+"And if necessary I shall defend myself!" he cried.
+
+King's passivity broke. He bounded from his seat bristling with anger.
+
+"Go!" he commanded sharply, and Casey went.
+
+
+LI
+
+
+
+People had already read King's article in the _Bulletin_. People had
+seen Casey heading for the _Bulletin_ office with blood in his eye. The
+news had spread. When the Irishman emerged he found waiting for him a
+curious crowd. His friends crowded around asking eager questions. Casey
+answered with vague but bloodthirsty generalities: he wasn't a man to
+be trifled with, and egad some people had to find that out!
+blackmailing was not a healthy occupation when it was aimed at a
+gentleman! He left the impression that King had recanted, had
+apologized, had even begged--there would be no more trouble. Uttering
+brags of this sort, Casey led the way to the Bank Exchange, a
+fashionable bar near at hand. Here he set up the drinks, and was
+treated in turn. His bragging became more boastful. He made a fine
+impression, but within his breast the taste of his interview with King
+curdled into dangerous bitterness. Casey could never stand much
+alcohol. The well-meant admiration and sympathy of his friends served
+only to increase his hidden, smouldering rage. His eyes became
+bloodshot, and he talked even more at random.
+
+In the group that surrounded him was our old acquaintance, Judge Edward
+McGowan--Ned McGowan--jolly, hard drinking, oily, but not as noisy as
+usual. He was watching Casey closely. The Honourable Ned was himself a
+fugitive from Pennsylvania justice. By dint of a gay life, a happy
+combination of bullying and intrigue, he had made himself a place in
+the new city, and at last had "risen" to the bench. He was apparently
+all on the surface, but his schemes ran deep. Some historians claim
+that he had furnished King the documents proving Casey an ex-convict!
+Now, when he considered the moment opportune, he drew Casey from the
+noisy group at the bar.
+
+"All this talk is very well," he said contemptuously to the Irishman,
+"but I see through it. What are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I'll get even with the----, don't you worry about that!" promised
+Casey, still blustering.
+
+This McGowan brushed aside as irrelevant. "Are you armed?" he asked.
+"No, that little weapon is too uncertain. Take this." He glanced about
+him, and hastily passed to Casey a big "navy" revolver. "You can hide
+it under your cloak--so!" He fixed Casey's eyes with his own, and
+brought to bear on the little man all the force of his very vital
+personality, "Listen: King comes by here every evening. Everybody knows
+that, and everybody knows what has happened."
+
+He stared at Casey significantly for a moment, then turned abruptly
+away. Casey, become suddenly quiet, his blustering mood fallen from
+him, his face thoughtful and white, his eyes dilated, said nothing. He
+returned to the bar, took a solitary drink, and walked out the door,
+his right hand concealed beneath his long cloak. McGowan watched him
+intently, following to the door, and looking after the other's
+retreating form. Casey walked across the street, but stopped behind a
+wagon, where he stood, apparently waiting. McGowan, with a grunt of
+satisfaction, sauntered deliberately to the corner of the Bank
+Exchange. There he leaned against the wall, also waiting.
+
+For nearly an hoar the two thus remained: Casey shrouded in his cloak,
+apparently oblivious to everything except the corner of Merchant and
+Montgomery streets, on which he kept his eyes fixed; McGowan lounging
+easily, occasionally speaking a low word to a passerby. Invariably the
+person so addressed came to a stop. Soon a little group had formed,
+idling with Judge McGowan. A small boy happening by was commandeered
+with a message for Pete Wrightman, the deputy sheriff, and shortly Pete
+arrived out of breath to join the group.
+
+At just five o'clock the idlers stiffened to attention. King's figure
+was seen to turn the corner of Merchant Street into Montgomery. Head
+bent, he walked toward the corner of the Bankers' Exchange, the men on
+the corner watching him. When nearly at that point he turned to cross
+the street diagonally.
+
+At the same instant Casey stepped forward from behind the wagon,
+throwing back his cloak.
+
+
+LII
+
+The same afternoon Johnny Fairfax and Keith were sitting together in
+the Monumental's reading-room. They happened to be the only members in
+the building with the exception of Bert Taylor, who was never anywhere
+else. Of late Keith had acquired the habit of visiting the reading-room
+at this empty hour. He was beginning to shrink from meeting his
+fellowmen. Johnny Fairfax was a great comfort to him, for the express
+rider was never out of spirits, had a sane outlook, and entertained a
+genuine friendship for the young lawyer. Although yet under thirty
+years of age, he was already an "old-timer," for he had come out in
+'49, and knew the city's early history at first hand.
+
+"This old bell of yours is historical," he told Keith. "Its tolling
+called together the Vigilantes of '51."
+
+They sat gossiping for an hour, half sleepy with reaction from the
+fatigues of the day, smoking slowly, enjoying themselves. Everything
+was very peaceful--the long slant of a sunbeam through dust motes, the
+buzz of an early bluebottle, the half-heard activities of some of the
+servants in the pantry beyond, preparing for the rush of the cocktail
+hour. Suddenly Johnny raised his head and pricked up his ears.
+
+"What the deuce is that!" he exclaimed.
+
+They listened, then descended to the big open engine-room doors and
+listened again. From the direction of Market Street came the dull
+sounds of turmoil, shouting, the growl and roar of many people excited
+by something. Across the Plaza a man appeared, running. As he came
+nearer, both could see that his face had a very grim expression.
+
+
+"Here!" called Johnny, as the man neared them. "Stop a minute! Tell us
+what's the matter!"
+
+The man ceased running, but did not stop. He was panting but evidently
+very angry. His words came from between gritted teeth.
+
+"Fight," he said briefly. "Casey and James King of William. King's
+shot."
+
+At the words something seemed to be stilled in Keith's mind. Johnny
+seized the man by the sleeve.
+
+"Hold on," he begged. "I know that kind of a fight. Tell us."
+
+"Casey went up close to King, said 'come on,' and instantly shot him
+before King knew what he was saying."
+
+"Killed?"
+
+"Fatally wounded."
+
+"Where's Casey?"
+
+"In jail--of course--where he's safe--with his friends."
+
+"Where you headed for?"
+
+"I'm going to get my gun!" said the man grimly, and began again to run.
+
+They watched his receding figure until it swung around the corner and
+disappeared. Without warning a white-hot wave of anger swept over
+Keith. All the little baffling, annoying delays, enmities,
+technicalities, chicaneries, personal antagonisms, evasions that had
+made up the Cora trial were in it. He seemed to see clearly the
+inevitable outcome of this trial also. It would be another
+Cora-Richardson case over again. A brave spirit had been brutally
+blotted out by an outlaw who relied confidently on the usual
+exoneration. With an exclamation Keith darted into the engine house to
+where hung the rope ready for an alarm. An instant later the heavy
+booming of the Monumental's bell smote the air.
+
+
+LIII
+
+
+
+Having given this alarm. Keith, Johnny at his elbow, started toward the
+centre of disturbance, From it arose a dull, menacing roar, like the
+sound of breakers on a rocky coast. Many people, with much excitement,
+shouting, and vituperation, were converging toward the common centre.
+As this was approached, it became more difficult, at last impossible,
+to proceed. The streets were packed, jammed. All sorts of rumours were
+abroad--King, was dead--King was only slightly hurt--Casey was not in
+jail at all--Casey had escaped down the Peninsula--the United States
+warships had anchored off the foot of Market Street and were preparing
+to bombard the city. There was much rushing to and fro without cause.
+And over all the roar could be distinguished occasionally single cries,
+as one may catch fragments of conversation in a crowded room, and all
+of these were sinister: "Hang him!" "Where is he?" "Run him up on a
+lamp post!" "Bring him out!" "He'll get away if left to the officers!"
+And over all the cries, the shouts, the curses, the noise of shuffling
+feet, the very sound of heavy breathing--that--the numbers of the mob
+magnified to a muffled, formidable undernote, pealed louder and louder
+the Monumental bell, which now Bert Taylor--or some one else--was
+ringing like mad.
+
+Keith's eyes had become grim and inscrutable, and his mouth had settled
+into a hard, straight line. Johnny's interest had at first centred in
+the mob, but after a few curious glances at his companion he
+transferred it entirely to him, Johnny Fairfax was a judge of men and
+of crises; and now he was invaded with a great curiosity to see how the
+one and the other were here to work out. With a determination that
+would not be gainsaid, Keith thrust himself through the crowd until he
+had gained an elevated coping. Here he stood watching. Johnny, after a
+glance at his face, joined him.
+
+Suddenly in the entrance of Dunbar Alley, next the city jail, a compact
+group of men with drawn pistols appeared. They made their way rapidly
+to a carriage standing near, jumped in, and the driver whipped up his
+horses. With a yell of rage the crowd charged down, but recoiled
+instinctively before the presented pistols. The horses reared and
+plunged, and before anybody had gathered his wits sufficiently to seize
+the bridles, the whole equipage had disappeared around the corner of
+Kearney Street.
+
+"I must say that was well done," said Johnny.
+
+"North and Charles Duane, with Casey, inside," commented Keith, as
+dispassionately as though reading from a catalogue. "Billy Mulligan and
+his deputies outside. That is to be remembered."
+
+A great mob had surged after the disappearing vehicle, but at least
+fifty yards in the rear. The remainder were following at a more
+leisurely pace. Almost immediately the street was empty. Keith climbed
+slowly down from his coping.
+
+"What do you intend doing?" asked Johnny curiously.
+
+"Nothing yet."
+
+"But they're getting him away!"
+
+"No," said Keith, out of his local knowledge. "They're merely taking
+him to the county jail; it's stronger."
+
+They followed the crowd to the wide open space below the county jail.
+The latter was at that period a solidly built one-story building
+situated atop a low bluff. Below it the marshal had drawn up his
+officers. They stood coolly at ease. The mob, very excited,
+vociferated, surged back and forth. North and his men, busily and
+coolly, but emphatically, were warning them, over and over again, not
+to approach nearer. A single, concerted rush would have overwhelmed the
+few defenders; but the rush was not made. Nevertheless, it could not be
+doubted that this time the temper of the people was very determined.
+The excitement was growing with every minute. Cries again took
+coherence.
+
+"Hang him!" "Arrest the officers!" "Good, that's it!" "Let's take the
+jail!"
+
+A man burst through the front ranks, clambered up the low bluff on
+which stood the jail, turned, and attempted to harangue the crowd. He
+was instantly torn down by the officers. He fought like a wild cat, and
+the crowd, on the hair trigger as it was, howled and broke forward. But
+Marshal North, who really handled the situation intelligently, sharply
+commanded his men to desist, and instantly to release the orator. He
+knew better than to allow the matter to come to an issue of strength.
+Intensely excited, the man shouldered his way through the crowd, and,
+assisted by many hands, mounted the balcony of a two-story house.
+Thence he began to harangue, but so great was the confusion that he
+could not be heard.
+
+"Who is he?" "Who is that man?" voices cried from a dozen points.
+
+George Frank, a hotel keeper, possessed of a great voice, shouted back:
+
+"That is Thomas King--"
+
+An officer seized Frank hastily by the collar. "Stop or I'll arrest
+you!" he threatened.
+
+"--brother of James King of William!" bellowed Frank, undaunted.
+
+"Bully for you!" muttered Johnny Fairfax, whose eyes were shining.
+
+Keith was watching the whole scene from beneath the brim of his hat,
+his eyes sombre and expressionless. Johnny glanced at him from time to
+time, but said nothing.
+
+From the balcony Thomas King continued to harangue the crowd. Little of
+what he said could be heard, but he was at a white heat of excitement,
+and those nearest him were greatly aroused. An officer made a movement
+to arrest him, but a hasty message from the sapient North restrained
+that.
+
+At that moment a great cheer burst out from the lower end of the
+street. Over the heads of the crowd could be distinguished the glint of
+file after file of bayonets.
+
+"That's the ticket!" cried an enthusiast near Keith and Johnny. "Here
+come the militia boys! Now we'll soon have the jail!"
+
+The bayonets bobbed steadily through the crowd, deployed in front of
+the jail, and turned to face the mob. A great groan went up.
+
+"Sold!" cried the enthusiast.
+
+These were volunteers from the Law and Order party, hastily armed from
+the militia armouries, and thrown in front of the jail for its
+protection.
+
+Immediately they had taken position the jail door opened, and there
+appeared a rather short, carefully dressed man, with side whiskers,
+carrying his hat in his hand. He stood for a moment, appealing for
+attention, one arm upraised. Little by little the noise died down.
+
+"Who is that?" inquired Johnny.
+
+He received no reply from Keith, but the enthusiast informed him:
+
+"That's our beloved mayor--Van Ness," said he.
+
+When quiet had at length been restored, Van Ness addressed them:
+
+"You are here creating an excitement," he said, "which may lead to
+occurrences this night which will require years to wipe out. You are
+now labouring under great excitement, and I advise you quietly to
+disperse. I assure you the prisoner is safe. Let the law have its
+course and justice will be done."
+
+Up to this point Van Ness had been listened to with respect, but at the
+last word he received such a chorus of jeers and cat calls that he
+retired hastily.
+
+"How about Richardson?" they demanded of him. "Where's the law in
+Cora's case?" "To hell with such justice!"
+
+"Not the popular orator," observed Johnny Fairfax.
+
+More soldiers came, and then more, at short intervals, until the square
+was filled with shining bayonets. Johnny was frankly disgusted. As a
+man of action he too well understood that this particular crisis was
+practically over. From this mob the jail was safe.
+
+"They lost their chance talking," he said. "They ought to have rushed
+the jail first pop. Now the whole thing will fizzle out slowly. Let's
+go get supper."
+
+Without reply Keith descended from his perch. They hunted some time for
+a restaurant. All were closed for the sufficient reason that their
+staffs were on the streets. Finally they discovered a Chinese chop
+house prepared to serve them, and here they ate. Johnny was voluble in
+his scorn for the manner in which a golden opportunity had been allowed
+to slip by. Keith was very taciturn.
+
+"Let's get out of here," he said abruptly at last. "Let's get some
+news."
+
+They learned that King was still alive, though badly wounded in the
+left breast; that he could not be moved; that he was attended by Dr.
+Beverly Cole and a half score of the best surgeons of the city; that a
+mass meeting had been called at the Plaza. Indeed, there could be no
+doubt that the centre of excitement had been shifted to the Plaza. Men
+by thousands, all armed, were marching in that direction. Johnny and
+Keith found the square jammed, but the latter led the way by devious
+alleys to the rear of the Monumental headquarters, and so out to a
+little second-story balcony.
+
+Below them the faces of the packed mass of humanity showed white in the
+dim light from the street lamps and the buildings. Arms gleamed. Every
+roof top, every window, every balcony was crowded. From the latter
+vehement orators held forth. All wanted to talk at once. Some of these
+people were, as our chronicler of the time quaintly expresses it,
+"considerably tight." Keith looked them all over with an appraising
+eye, listening at the same time to incendiary speeches advising the
+battering down of the jail and the hanging of all its inmates.
+Occasionally one of the cooler headed would get in a few words, but
+invariably was interrupted by some well-meaning hot head.
+
+There seemed to be a great diversity of opinion both among the people
+on the balcony and those below. Keith listened attentively for a time,
+then, with the abruptness that had characterized his movements and
+decisions since the moment he had heard the news of King's
+assassination, he turned away.
+
+"Let's go," he said briefly.
+
+"Oh, hold on!" cried Johnny, aghast. "It's just the shank of the
+evening! We'll miss all the fun."
+
+"There'll be nothing done," said Keith with decision.
+
+"I'm more in hopes," persisted Johnny. "I'll bet there are ten thousand
+men here, armed and angry, and getting angrier every minute. They could
+fairly eat up that lot at the jail."
+
+"They won't," said Keith.
+
+"I'll bet one good man could turn them loose in a minute."
+
+Suddenly Keith's dour taciturnity broke. "You're perfectly right," he
+conceded; "but the point is that good men won't lead a rabble. If we're
+to have good leaders we must have something for them to lead. If we're
+to cure these conditions, we must do things in due order. This cannot
+be remedied by mere excitement nor by deeds done under excitement. I
+have not yet seen anything that promises either satisfaction or reform."
+
+"What do you propose doing, then?" asked Johnny, his intuitions again
+satisfying him that here was the man to tie to.
+
+"Walk about," replied Keith.
+
+They walked about. In the course of the evening they looked in on a
+dozen meetings of which they had news--in the Pioneer Club, in rooms
+over the old Bella Union, in a saloon off Montgomery Street, at the
+offices of various merchants. Keith looked carefully over the personnel
+of each of these various meetings, listened a minute or so, and went
+out. By some of the men so gathered Johnny was quite impressed, but
+Keith shook his head.
+
+"These meetings are being held by clubs or cliques," he explained his
+disbelief in them. "They influence a certain following, but not a
+general following. This must be a general movement or none at all. The
+right people haven't taken hold."
+
+About midnight he unexpectedly announced that he was going home and to
+bed. Johnny was frankly scandalized.
+
+"I think nothing will happen in this matter," said Keith,
+
+"The time for mob violence has passed. If an attack were now to be
+made, I should consider it unfortunate, and should not want to be mixed
+up in it, anyway. A mob attack is nothing but a manifestation of sheer
+lawlessness."
+
+"And you're keen for the dear law, of course," said Johnny with sarcasm.
+
+"There is a difference between mere laws and the law. There is a
+time--either here or coming soon--when laws may be broken that justice
+may be done. But no popular movement will succeed unless it has behind
+it the solemn, essential human law. Good-night."
+
+LIV
+
+
+
+On this same afternoon of King's assassination Nan Keith, was expecting
+Sansome in for tea. Afternoon tea was then an exotic institution,
+practically unknown in California society. Ben Sansome was about the
+only man of Nan's acquaintance who took it as a matter of course,
+without either awkwardness, embarrassment, or ill-timed jest. The day
+had been fine, and several times she had regretted her promise as she
+cast an eye at the glow over the gilt-edged tops of the western hills.
+The sunset through the Golden Gate must to-day be very fine.
+
+And Ben Sansome had failed her! She had made certain little especial
+preparations--picked flowers, herself cut the sandwiches thin, put on
+her most becoming tea gown. As time passed she became more and more
+annoyed. She was disappointed not so much at the absence of Ben Sansome
+as a person as at the waste of her efforts.
+
+But at six o'clock, when she had given him up, and was about to change
+from her tea gown, he came in, full of apologies, very flustered, and
+bursting with news.
+
+"King was shot on the street by Casey," he told her, trying not
+unsuccessfully for his habitual detached manner. "I stopped to get the
+news for you. King is not dead, but probably fatally wounded. Casey is
+in jail. There is a great public excitement--a mob is forming. I've
+been expecting something of the sort. King has been pretty free with
+his comments."
+
+At seven o'clock Nan jumped to her feet in a sudden panic.
+
+"Why, I wonder where Milton is!" she cried. "He's never been so late as
+this before!"
+
+"He's probably stayed downtown to follow the course of the excitement.
+Naturally he would. He may not get home to supper at all."
+
+Wing Sam announced supper. He was unheeded. Even Gringo, his ears
+cocked, watched the door, getting up uneasily, whining, sniffing
+inquiringly, and lying down again. At half-past seven Sansome firmly
+intervened.
+
+"You're going to make yourself ill," he insisted, "if you don't eat
+something. I am hungry, anyway, and I'm not going to leave you until he
+comes back."
+
+"Oh, you must be starved! How thoughtless I am!" she cried.
+
+Sansome, who, it must be confessed, had been somewhat chagrined at the
+apparent intensity of her anxiety, was, within the next two hours,
+considerably reassured. Nan never did things halfway. For the moment
+she had forgotten her guest. He was certainly very kind, very
+thoughtful--as always--to stay here with her. She must not oppress his
+spirits. But the inner tension was terrible. She felt that shortly
+something must snap. And after supper, when they had returned to the
+drawing-room, a queer, low, growling, distant roar, borne on a chance
+shift of wind, broke one of her sentences in the middle.
+
+"What's that?" she cried, but before Sansome had replied, she knew what
+It was, the roar of the mob! And Milton was somewhere there!
+
+Suddenly a wave of reaction swept her, of anger. Why was he there? Why
+wasn't he at home? Why had he made no attempt to relieve her cruel
+anxiety? A messenger--it would have been very simple! And Ben Sansome
+was so kind--as always. She turned to him with a new decision.
+
+"I know you are dying to go see what is going on," she said. "You
+simply must not stay here any longer on my account. I insist! Indeed, I
+think I'll go to bed." But Ben Sansome, his manner becoming almost
+caressingly protective, would not listen.
+
+"It isn't safe to leave you alone," he told her. "All the worst
+elements of the city will be out. No woman should be left alone in
+times of such danger. I should feel most uneasy at leaving you before
+your husband comes in."
+
+His words were correct enough, but he managed to convey his opinion
+that he was only fulfilling what should have been Keith's first and
+manifest duty. She made no reply. The conversation languished and died.
+They sat in the lamplight opposite each other, occasionally exchanging
+a word or so. Sansome was content and enjoying himself. He conceived
+that the stars were fighting for him, and he was enjoying the hour.
+Nan, a prey alternately to almost uncontrollable fits of anxiety and
+flaming resentment, could hardly sit still.
+
+About midnight Gringo pricked up his ears and barked sharply. A moment
+later Keith came in.
+
+He was evidently dead tired and wholly preoccupied. He hung up his hat
+absently. Nan had sprung to her feet.
+
+"Oh, how could you!" she cried, the pent exasperation in her voice.
+"I've been so anxious! I didn't know what might have happened!"
+
+"I'm all right," replied Keith briefly. "Sorry you were worried. No
+chance to send you word."
+
+His apparent indifference added fuel to Nan's irritation.
+
+"If it hadn't been for Ben, I should have been stark, staring crazy,
+here all alone!".
+
+Keith for the first time appeared to notice Sansome's presence. He
+nodded at him wearily.
+
+"Mighty good of you," said he. "I appreciate it."
+
+"I thought _some_ man ought to be in the house at a time of such public
+excitement," rejoined Sansome significantly.
+
+Keith failed to catch, or elected not to notice, the implication. Nan's
+cheeks turned red.
+
+Without further remark Keith walked across to lock the window;
+returning, he extinguished a small lamp on the side table. He was tired
+out, knew he must be up early, and wanted above everything to get to
+bed. The hint was sufficiently obvious. Sansome rose. Nan's flush
+deepened with mortification.
+
+"Well, I'll just run along," said Sansome cheerfully. He did not ask
+for news of the evening, nor did Keith volunteer it. Keith nodded at
+him briefly and indifferently. He did not mean to be rude, but his
+wearied mind was filled to the exclusion of everything else with the
+significance of this day.
+
+Nan, feeling that she must make amends, followed Sansome into the hall.
+Her anxiety for Keith's safety relieved, her whole reaction was
+indignantly toward Sansome.
+
+"I'm sorry to have you go," she said, with a feeling that other
+circumstances could not have called out, "I don't know what I'd have
+done without you!"
+
+Sansome's sensitive intuitions thrilled to the feeling.
+
+"Your husband is here to take care of you--now," he murmured. "I must
+be off." He took her hand, and bent over her, gazing into her eyes with
+the concentration of a professional hypnotist, "Good-night," he said,
+with a world of unexpressed meaning. "Try to get some sleep--Nan," He
+said her name in a lower tone, almost lingeringly, then turned abruptly
+and went out.
+
+Nan stood looking for a moment at the closed door. The effect of his
+personality was on her spirit, the mantle of his care for her, his
+consideration for her every mood, wrapped her about gratefully.
+
+She found the lights all out, and Keith already half undressed.
+
+"I must say, Milton," she said, "you might have been a little less rude
+to Mr. Sansome. It would have only been decent after he had sat up here
+until all hours."
+
+Keith, whose wide eyes would have showed him to be wholly preoccupied
+with some inner vision or problem, answered impatiently from the
+surface of his mind:
+
+"What in the world did I do to Sansome?"
+
+"You didn't do anything, that's the trouble. Do you realize he waited
+here over six hours for you to come in?"
+
+"Oh, I guess he'll pull through," said Keith a little contemptuously.
+
+Nan became indignant.
+
+"At least," she retorted, "you ought to be grateful that he stayed to
+protect the place!"
+
+"The place was in no danger," said Keith, yawning.
+
+She checked herself, and made a fresh start.
+
+"What's it all about? What's happened? Where have you been?" she asked.
+
+Keith roused himself with an effort.
+
+"I've been a little of everywhere. Lord, I'm tired! There's a mob about
+trying to get up nerve to hang Casey. I suppose you've heard that Casey
+shot King this afternoon?"
+
+"Yes, I heard that."
+
+"Well, when I saw nothing was going to happen, I came home, though I'm
+not sure the trouble is over."
+
+Having said this, Keith fell gratefully to his pillow. Nan was nervous,
+wide-awake, curious. She asked a number of questions. Keith answered
+with extreme brevity. He was temporarily exhausted. Shortly he fell
+asleep between two sentences.
+
+
+
+LV
+
+
+
+The following morning Keith woke early, slipped to the kitchen where he
+was fed by Wing Sam, and was downtown before Nan, who had not so
+promptly fallen asleep, had yet stirred. Even at that hour the streets
+were crowded. Many--and the majority of these were "considerably
+tight," or otherwise looking the worse for wear--had been up all night,
+unable to tear themselves away from the fascinating centres of
+excitement. The majority, however, had, like Keith, snatched some
+repose, and now were out eager to discover what a new day might bring
+forth.
+
+The morning newspapers had been issued. Each man held a copy of one of
+them open at the editorial column, and others tucked away under his
+arm. Never had there been such a circulation; and in the case of the
+_Herald_ never would so many be sold again. For that ill-starred sheet,
+mistaking utterly the times, held boldly along the way of its
+sympathies. It spoke of the assassination as an "affray"; held forth
+violently against the mob spirit of the evening before; and stated
+vehemently its opinion that, now that "Justice is regularly
+administered" there was no excuse for even the threat of public
+violence. If there had been any doubt as to the depth to which public
+opinion was at last stirred, the reception of the _Herald's_ editorial
+would have settled it. Actually, for the moment, indignation seemed to
+run more strongly against that sheet than against Casey himself.
+
+Keith glanced over this editorial with a half smile, tossed the paper
+in the gutter, and opened the _Alta_ for news. King, still living, had
+been removed from the office of the Express Company to a room in the
+Montgomery Block. There, attended by his wife, Dr. Beverly Cole, and a
+whole corps of volunteer physicians, he was making a fight for life.
+The bullet had penetrated his left breast. That was all that was to be
+reported at present. Keith glanced at the third page. His eye was
+caught by this notice:
+
+THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
+
+The members of the Vigilance Committee in good standing will please
+meet at No. 105-1/2 Sacramento Street, this day, Thursday, 15th
+instant, at nine o'clock A.M.
+
+By order of the
+
+COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN.
+
+While he was still gazing thoughtfully at this Johnny Fairfax, fresh as
+the morning, appeared at his elbow.
+
+"Hello, wise man," he greeted him cheerily. "You were a good
+prophet--and you got some sleep. I hung around all night, but nothing
+new was done."
+
+"Look here," said Keith, placing his finger on the notice, "do you
+suppose this genuine?"
+
+Johnny read the notice.
+
+"Couldn't say."
+
+"Because if this is actually the old Committee of '51, it means
+business."
+
+"There's one way to find out."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"Go and see," advised Johnny.
+
+Number 105-1/2 Sacramento Street proved to be a big three-storied
+barnlike structure that had been built by a short-lived political party
+called the Know Nothings. Already the hall was packed to its full
+capacity, the entrance ways jammed, and a big crowd had gathered in the
+streets.
+
+"Fine chance we have here!" observed Johnny ruefully.
+
+They stood well free of the press for a few moments, watching. More men
+were coming from all directions. But Johnny was resourceful, and
+likewise restless.
+
+"Let's prowl around a little," he suggested to his companion.
+
+They prowled to such good purpose that they discovered, at the rear of
+the building, opening into a blind alley, a narrow wooden stairway. It
+was unguarded and untenanted.
+
+"Here we are," pronounced Johnny.
+
+They ascended it, and immediately found themselves In a small room back
+of the stage or speaker's platform, It contained about a score of men.
+Their aspect was earnest, serious, grave. Although there was a
+sufficiency of chairs, they were all afoot, gathered in a loose group,
+in whose centre stood William Coleman, his massive shoulders squared,
+his large bony, hands clenched at his side, his florid complexion even
+more flushed than usual, his steady eye travelling slowly from one face
+to another, Again the strange contradictions in, his appearance struck
+Keith with the impact of a distinct shock--the low smoothed hair, the
+sweeping blue-black moustache, the vivid colour, and high cheek bones
+of the typical gambler--the clear eye, firm mouth, incisive, deliberate
+speech, the emanation of personality that inspired confidence. Next
+him, talking earnestly, stood Clancey Dempster, a small man, mild of
+manner, blue eyed, with light, smooth hair, the last man in the room
+one would have picked for great firmness and courage, yet destined to
+play one of the leading roles in this crisis. The gigantic merchant,
+Truett, towered above him, he who had calmly held two fighting
+teamsters apart by their collars; and homely, stubborn, honest Farwell,
+direct, uncompromising, inspired with tremendous single-minded
+earnestness, but tender as a girl to any under dog; and James Dows,
+rough and ready, humorous, blasphemous, absolutely direct, endowed with
+"horse sense," eccentric, but of fundamentally good judgment: Hossfros
+of '51; Dr. Beverly Cole, high spirited, distinguished looking,
+courtly; the excitable, active, nervous, talkative, but staunch Tom
+Smiley, Isaac Blucome whose signature as "33, Secretary" was to become
+terrible; fiery little George Ward, willing--but unable--to whip his
+weight in wild cats. As Keith recognized these men, and others of their
+stamp, he nodded his head contentedly.
+
+Johnny Fairfax must have caught the same impression, for he leaned
+across to whisper to Keith, his eyes shining:
+
+"We've hit it!"
+
+Their entrance had passed unnoticed in the absorption of discussion.
+Coleman was speaking, evidently in final decision.
+
+"It is a serious business," said he. "It is no child's play. It may
+prove very serious. We may get through quickly, so safely, or we may so
+involve ourselves as never to get through."
+
+"The issue is not of choice, but of expediency," urged Dempster. "Shall
+we have vigilance with order or a mob with anarchy?"
+
+Coleman pondered a moment, then threw up his head.
+
+"On two conditions I will accept the responsibility--absolute
+obedience, absolute secrecy."
+
+Without waiting for a reply to this he threw open a door, and followed
+by the others, stepped out on the platform. A roar greeted their
+appearance. Johnny and Keith, remaining modestly in the background,
+lingered near the open door.
+
+The hall was filled to its utmost capacity. Every inch of floor space
+was occupied, and men perched on sills, clung to beams. Coleman raised
+his hand and obtained an immediate dead silence.
+
+"In view of the miscarriage of justice in the courts," he announced
+briefly, "it has been thought expedient to revive the Vigilance
+Committee. An Executive Council was chosen by a representative of the
+whole body. I have been asked to take charge. I will do so, but must
+stipulate that I am to be free to choose the first council myself. Is
+that agreed?"
+
+A roar of assent answered him.
+
+"Very well, gentlemen. I shall request you to vacate the hall. In a
+short time the books will be open for enrollment."
+
+He turned and reentered the anteroom followed by the others. In so
+doing he came face to face with the intruders.
+
+"This is not your place, gentlemen," he told them courteously.
+
+They retired down the narrow back stairs and joined the huge throng
+that filled the streets, waiting patiently and quietly, its eyes fixed
+on the closed doors of the hall. In a remarkably short time these doors
+were thrown open. Those nearest surged forward. Inside the passage were
+twelve men, later to be known as the Executive Committee. These held
+back the rush, admitting but one man at a time. The crowd immediately
+caught the idea. There was absolutely no excitement. Every man was
+grimly in earnest. Cries of "Order! Order! Line up!" came from
+different parts of the throng. A rough quadruple queue was formed
+extending down the street. There was no talk nor smiles, none of the
+usual rough joking. Each waited his turn without impatience.
+
+Johnny Fairfax and Keith, owing to the chance that they had, entered
+the crowd from the nearby alley and found themselves close to the head
+of the line. As they neared the entrance, and so could hear what was
+there going on, they found that each applicant was being closely
+scrutinized and interrogated. The great majority passed this ordeal,
+but several men were peremtorily turned back with a warning not to try
+again.
+
+Keith's turn came. He was conscious of the scrutiny of many eyes; he
+heard the word "pass" pronounced by some one in the background, and
+climbed the stairs. At the top he was directed to an anteroom at the
+left. Here behind a table sat Coleman, Dempster, and a third man
+unknown to him. To them he repeated the words of an oath of secrecy,
+and then was passed into another room where Isaac Bluxome sat behind a
+ledger. In this he wrote his name.
+
+"Your number is 178," said Bluxome to him, "By that number, and not by
+your name, you are henceforth to be known here. Never use names, always
+their numbers, in referring to other members."
+
+Thence Keith was directed to the main hall where were those already
+admitted. These were gathered in groups discussing the situation. In a
+moment Johnny Fairfax joined him.
+
+"179, I am," said Johnny. His eyes swept the hall. "Not much mob spirit
+about this; it looks like business."
+
+They hung around for an hour. The hall slowly filled. Finally, learning
+that nothing further was to be done until the enrollment had finished,
+they wandered out again into the street. The unbroken lines of
+applicants extended as far down the street as the eye could see.
+
+All that day the applicants, orderly and grim with purpose, were passed
+through in line. By mid-day it was seen that the Know-Nothing Hall was
+going to be too small for the meeting that would later take place.
+Therefore, a move was made to the Turnverein Hall. After enrolling, no
+man departed from the vicinity for long. Short absences for hastily
+snatched meals were followed by hurried returns lest something be
+missed. From time to time reports were circulated as to the activities
+of the Executive Committee, which had been in continuous session since
+its appointment. Thus it was said that an Examining Committee had been
+appointed to scrutinize the applicants; that the members of the
+Executive Committee had been raised to twenty-six, that Oscar Smith had
+been appointed chief of police. The latter rumour was immediately
+verified by the energetic activities of that able citizen. He, or his
+messengers, darted here and there searching for individuals wanted as
+doorkeepers, guards, or police officers. His regulations also began to
+be felt. By evening only registered members of the committee were
+allowed on the floor of the hall, even the expostulating reporters
+being gently but firmly ejected.
+
+Nobody manifested the least excitement or impatience. At eight o'clock
+Coleman came out of one of the side rooms, and, mounting a table,
+called for order.
+
+"A military organization is deemed necessary," he said crisply.
+"Numbers one to one hundred will please assemble in the southwest
+corner of the room; numbers one hundred and one to two hundred will
+take the first window; numbers two hundred and one to three hundred the
+second window, and so on." He hesitated and looked over the assembly.
+"_Que les Francais, se mettent au centre_," he ended.
+
+This command in a foreign language was made necessary by the
+extraordinary number of Frenchmen who had first answered the call of
+gold in the El Dorado of '49; and then with equal enthusiasm responded
+to this demand for essential justice.
+
+Coleman waited while the multitude shifted here and there. When the
+component parts had again come to rest he made his next announcement:
+
+"Now each company will elect its own officers, but those officers are
+subject to the orders of the Executive Committee."
+
+Numbers one hundred and one to two hundred inclusive, the company in
+which Keith and Johnny Fairfax found themselves, were for the most part
+strangers to one another, They exchanged glances, hesitating as to how
+to begin. Then a small, spectacled, man spoke up.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "we must get organized as rapidly as possible,
+Mr. Coleman is waiting. We need for a leader a man who is experienced
+in active life. I nominate John Fairfax as captain of this company."
+
+Johnny gasped and turned red.
+
+"Who's your little friend?" Keith whispered.
+
+"Never saw him before in my life," replied Johnny.
+
+The announcement was received with indecision. Nobody immediately
+replied or commented aloud on the nomination, but men were asking each
+other in undertones. The little spectacled man saw this, and spoke up
+again:
+
+"Perhaps I should say that Mr. Fairfax is better known as Diamond Jack."
+
+Faces cleared, heads nodded. A murmur of recognition replaced the
+puzzled frowning, "Good man," "The express rider," "Danny Randall's
+man," they told each other.
+
+"I do not know Mr. Fairfax," the spectacled man was saying, "but I saw
+his name just before mine on the register."
+
+"This is Fairfax," said Keith, thrusting the reluctant Johnny forward.
+
+He was elected to the post by acclamation.
+
+"Nominations for a lieutenant?" suggested the spectacled man, but Keith
+interrupted.
+
+"If you all have as much confidence in Mr. Fairfax as I have," said he,
+"perhaps you'll give him free hand and let him pick his own officers."
+
+This seemed a good idea, and was instantly adopted.
+
+"Well, I thank you, gentlemen," said Johnny, "and we'll do our best to
+become efficient. Report your names and addresses to this gentleman
+here--"
+
+"Willey," supplied the little man.
+
+"We shall drill to-morrow at eight sharp. Bring whatever weapons----"
+
+But Coleman was again speaking and on this very subject:
+
+"The committee have arranged with George Law," he was saying, "to
+supply or hire muskets to the number of several thousands. These
+weapons will be at this hall to-morrow morning early. Company captains
+can then make their requisitions."
+
+A murmur of inquiry swept the hall. "George Law? Where did _he_ get
+several thousand muskets?" And the counter current of information
+making its way slowly--they were only flintlocks, perfectly efficient
+though, had bayonets--superseded government arms--brought out some time
+ago by Law to arm some mysterious filibustering expedition that had
+fizzled.
+
+In this manner, without confusion, an organization of two thousand men
+was formed, sixteen military companies officered and armed.
+
+Shortly after Coleman dismissed the meeting. Its members dispersed to
+their homes. Absolute quiet descended on the city, which slept under
+the moon.
+
+
+
+
+
+LVI
+
+To the  thoughtful bystander all this preparation had its significance
+and its portent, which became the stronger when he contemplated the
+dispositions of the Law and Order party. The latter had been not less
+vigorous, and its strength could not be doubted. The same day that
+marked the organization of the Vigilantes saw the regular police force
+largely increased. In addition, the sheriff issued thousands of
+summonses to citizens, calling on them for service on a _posse_. These
+were in due form of the law. To refuse them meant to put one's self
+outside the law. A great many of them were responded to, for this
+reason only, by men not wholly in sympathy with either side. Once the
+oath was administered, these new deputies were confronted by the choice
+between perjury and service. To be sure the issuance of these summonses
+forced many of the neutral minded into the ranks of the Vigilantes. The
+refusal to act placed them on the wrong side of the law; and they felt
+that joining a party pledged to what practically amounted to civil war
+was only a short step farther. The various military companies were
+mustered, reminded of their oaths, called upon solemnly to fulfil their
+sworn duty, and marched to various strategic points about the jail and
+elsewhere. Parenthetically, their every appearance on the streets was
+well hissed by the populace. The governor was informally notified of a
+state of insurrection, and requested to send in the State militia. By
+evening all the forces of organized society were under arms. The
+leaders of the Law and Order party were jubilant. Their position
+appeared to be impregnable. They felt that back of them was all the
+weight of constituted authority, reaching, if need be, to the Federal
+Government at Washington. Opposed to them was lawlessness. Lawlessness
+had occasionally become dignified revolution, to be sure, but only when
+a race took its stand on a great issue; never when a handful espoused a
+local quarrel. Civil war it might be; but civil war, the wise
+politicians argued, must spread to become effective; and how could a
+civil war based on the shooting of an obscure editor in a
+three-year-old frontier town spread anywhere? Especially such an editor
+as James King of William.
+
+For King had made many bitter enemies. In attacking individual members
+of a class he had often unreasonably antagonized the whole class. Thus
+he had justly castigated the _Times_ and other venal newspapers; but in
+so doing had by his too general statements drawn the fire of every
+other journal in town. He had with entire reason attacked a certain
+scalawag of a Roman Catholic priest--a man the church itself must soon
+have taken in hand--but had somehow managed to offend all Roman
+Catholics in doing so; likewise, there could be no question that his
+bitter scorn for "the chivalry" was well justified, but the manner of
+its expression offended also the decent Southerners. And all these
+people saw the Vigilantes, not as a protest against a condition that
+had become intolerable, but as the personal champions of King. The
+enemies of King, many of them worthy citizens, quite out of sympathy
+with the present methods of administering the law, became the enemies
+of the Vigilantes.
+
+No wonder the Law and Order party felt no uneasiness. They did not
+underestimate the determination of their opponents. It was felt that
+fighting, severe fighting, was perhaps inevitable. The Law and Order
+party loved fighting. They had chosen as their commander William
+Tecumseh Sherman, later to gain his fame as a great soldier. His
+greatness in a military capacity seems to have been exceeded only by
+his inability to remember facts proved elsewhere by original historical
+documents. This is the only possible explanation for the hash of
+misstatements comprising those chapters in his "Memoirs" dealing with
+this time. In writing them the worthy general evidently forgot that
+original documents existed, or that statements concerning historical
+events can often be checked.
+
+And as a final source of satisfaction, the Vigilantes had placed
+themselves on record. Every man could be apprehended and made to feel
+the weight of the law. A mob is irresponsible and anonymous. These
+fools had written down their names in books!
+
+
+
+
+LVII
+
+Now a new element was injected into the situation in the person of the
+governor of the State, one J. Neely Johnson, a politician who would
+long since have been utterly forgotten had not his unlucky star risen
+just at this unlucky time. A more unfortunate man for a crisis it would
+have been difficult to find. His whole life had been one of trimming;
+he had made his way by trimming; he had gained the governor's chair by
+yielding to the opinions of others. This training combined perfectly
+with the natural disposition of a chameleon. He was, or became, a
+sincere trimmer, taking his colour and his temporary beliefs from those
+with whom he happened to be. His judgment often stuck at trifles, and
+his opinions were quickly heated but as quickly cooled. His private
+morals were none of the best, which gave certain men an added hold.
+
+On receipt of the message sent by the Law and Order party--but not, be
+it noted, by the proper authorities--requesting the State militia,
+Governor Johnson came down post-haste from Sacramento. Immediately on
+arriving in the city he sent word to Coleman requesting an interview.
+Coleman at once followed the messenger to the Continental Hotel. He was
+shown to a private room where he found Johnson pacing up and down
+alone. Coleman bowed gravely in response to the governor's airy
+greeting. Johnson sat down, offered cigars, made every effort to appear
+amiable and conciliatory.
+
+"This is bad; this is bad, Coleman," he began the interview. "What is
+it you want?"
+
+"Peace," replied Coleman, "and if possible without a struggle."
+
+"That's all very well," said Johnson pettishly, "to talk about peace
+with an army of insurrection newly raised. But what is it you actually
+wish to accomplish?"
+
+Coleman looked at him steadily, then leaned forward.
+
+"The law is crippled," he told the governor in measured tones. "We want
+merely to accomplish what the crippled law should do but cannot. This
+done, we will gladly retire. Now, Governor, you have been asked by the
+mayor, and certain others, to bring out the militia and crush this
+movement. I assure you, it cannot be done; and if you attempt it, it
+will cause you and us great trouble. Do as Governor McDougall did in
+'51. See in this movement what he saw in that: a local movement for a
+local reform, in which the State is not concerned. We are not a mob; we
+demand no overthrow of institutions. We ask not a single court to
+adjourn; we ask not a single officer to vacate his position; we demand
+only the enforcement of the law--which, after all, we have made!" He
+extended his strong fist and laid it on the table. "If you deem it the
+conscientious duty of your office to discountenance these
+proceedings--as perhaps you well may--then let your opposition be in
+appearance only. In your heart you must know the necessity of this
+measure; you know the standing of the men managing it, You know that
+this is no mob, no distempered faction. It is San Francisco herself who
+speaks! Let California stand aside; let her leave us to our shame and
+sorrow; for, as God lives, we will cleanse this city of her corruption
+or perish with her! So we have sworn!"
+
+This long speech, delivered with the solemnity of absolute conviction,
+profoundly impressed Johnson's volatile nature.
+
+"But," he objected uncertainly, "Coleman, you must understand! This is
+against the law--and I have sworn to uphold the law!"
+
+"That is a matter for your own conscience," rejoined Coleman a little
+impatiently. "Issue your proclamation, if you feel that the dignity of
+the law may be best maintained by frowning on justice--but confine
+yourself to that! Leave us alone in our righteous purposes!"
+
+Johnson, his chameleon soul aglow with enthusiasm, leaped to his feet
+and seized Coleman's two hands. In his eye stood a tear.
+
+"Sir," he cried, "go on with your work! Let it be done as speedily as
+possible! You have my best wishes!"
+
+Coleman did not relax his formal gravity.
+
+"I am glad you feel that way, and that we understand each other," he
+contented himself with saying.
+
+The heroic moment past, Johnson's restless mind began to glance among
+anxieties.
+
+"But hasten the undertaking as much as you can," he begged. "The
+opposition is stronger than you suppose. The pressure on me is going to
+be terrible. What about the prisoners in the jail?" asked Johnson
+anxiously. "What is your immediate plan?"
+
+"That is in the hands of the committee," evaded Coleman.
+
+He left the governor, again pacing up and down.
+
+
+
+
+LVIII
+
+
+Coleman returned at once to the hall to resume his interrupted labours
+with the committee. The results of his conference with the governor
+seemed very satisfactory.
+
+"We can now go ahead with free minds," said Clancey Dempster.
+
+The business was astonishingly varied in scope. Charles Doane--not to
+be confused with Duane, the ex-fire chief--was appointed military
+commander-in-chief; Colonel Johns, captain of artillery; Olney was
+given the task of guarding the jail from the outside "with a force
+numerous enough to prevent escape." After considerable discussion Aaron
+Burns was made head of a civilian committee to take charge of all
+prisoners. It was moved and carried that no city or county official
+should be admitted to membership, a striking commentary on the
+disesteem in which such men were held. Permanent headquarters were
+arranged for; committees appointed for the solicitation of funds. A
+dozen other matters of similar detail were taken up, intelligently
+discussed, and provided for with the celerity of men trained in crises
+of business or life. At length it was moved the "committee, as a body,
+shall visit the county jail at such time as the Executive Committee
+might direct; and take thence James P. Casey and Charles Cora, give
+them a fair trial, and administer such punishment as justice shall
+demand."
+
+This was the real business, for the transaction of which all these
+lesser businesses had been prepared. A slight pause followed its
+introduction, as though each member present were savouring the
+significance of the moment.
+
+"Are you ready for the question?" asked Coleman in grave tones. "Those
+in favour----"
+
+"Aye," came the instant response from every man present.
+
+A messenger opened the door to announce that Governor Johnson was in
+the anteroom requesting speech with Coleman. The latter, handing his
+gavel to Dempster, immediately answered the summons.
+
+He found Johnson, accompanied by Sherman, Garrison, and two strangers,
+lounging in the anteroom. The governor sprawled in a chair, his hat
+pulled over his eyes, a cigar in the corner of his mouth. His
+companions arose and bowed gravely as Coleman entered the room, but he
+remained seated, nodding at Coleman with an air of cavalier bravado
+that was plainly intended to conceal his nervousness. Without waiting
+for the exchange of spoken greetings, he burst out:
+
+"We have come to ask what you intend to do," he demanded truculently of
+Coleman, as though he had never seen or talked to him before.
+
+Coleman stared at him for an instant, completely surprised; read him;
+set his mouth grimly.
+
+"Outrages are of constant occurrence," he recited briefly; "our
+suffrages are profaned, our fellow-citizens shot down in the street,
+our courts afford us no redress, we will endure it no longer."
+
+"I agree with you as to the grievances," rejoined the governor, almost
+as though reciting a learned lesson; "but I think the courts are the
+proper remedy. The judges are good men, and there is no necessity for
+the people to turn themselves into a mob and obstruct the execution of
+the laws."
+
+A flush mounted Coleman's cheek.
+
+"Sir!" he cried indignantly, "this is no mob! You know this is no mob!"
+
+Johnson looked at him from between half-closed lids, as though from a
+great distance.
+
+"The opposition is stronger than you imagine," he said. "There is
+danger to the city--great danger of bloodshed--which should be
+prevented if possible." He paused, focussed his whole attention on
+Coleman, and went on with deliberate significance: _"It may be
+necessary to bring out all the force at my command._ I strongly advise
+you to leave the case of Casey to the courts; and I pledge myself to
+his fair and speedy trial."
+
+Although realizing fully what a formidable element this change of front
+threw into the situation, Coleman's expression did not change: Sherman,
+watching him closely, could not see that his eyes even flickered.
+
+"That will not satisfy the people," he told the governor, coldly and
+formally. "However they might consider your intention, they will doubt
+your ability to keep such a promise," He was going to say more, but
+checked, himself abruptly. The silent but intent attitude of the
+governor's four companions had struck his attention. "They are present
+as witnesses!" he told himself. Aloud he said, "Sir, I will report your
+remarks to my associates," Coleman wanted witnesses, too.
+
+He returned to the committee, interrupting the proceedings,
+
+"The governor has flopped over the fence." he informed them. "He is out
+there with Sherman and some others threatening to bring in the State
+troops unless we turn Casey over to the courts and disband. He
+personally guarantees a fair and speedy trial."
+
+"What did you tell him?" demanded Hossfros.
+
+"I haven't told him anything. It suddenly occurred to me that I ought
+to have witnesses for my side of the conversation, What do you think?"
+
+"Same as I've always thought," replied Ward.
+
+A murmur of assent greeted this.
+
+After a remarkably brief discussion, considering the delicacy of the
+crisis, Coleman with others returned to the anteroom.
+
+"Sorry to have kept you waiting," he said blandly, "but some
+consideration of the question was necessary. Let us understand each
+other clearly. As I understand your proposal, it is that, if we make no
+move, you guarantee no escape, immediate trial, and instant execution?"
+
+"That is it," agreed Johnson, after a moment's focussing of his mind.
+For the first time it became evident to Coleman that the man had a
+trifle too much aboard.
+
+"We doubt your ability to do this," went on Coleman, "but we are ready
+to meet you halfway. This is what we will promise: we will take no
+steps without first giving you notice. But in return we insist that ten
+men of our own selection shall be added to the sheriff's force within
+the jail."
+
+"And," added Isaac Bluxome, "that they be fed and kept and treated
+well. That's part of the bargain."
+
+"Why, that sounds fair and reasonable, gentlemen!" the governor cried
+heartily. "I see no objection to that! I was sure we could come to an
+agreement!"
+
+He was suddenly all cordiality, all smiles, shaking each man's hand in
+turn. His companions retained their manner of glacial formality,
+however. He shortly withdrew, full of spirits, very much relieved at
+the lifting of what seemed to him a cloud of unjust oppression for a
+poor official who merely wanted peace. The real situation, evident
+enough to the keener brains on either side, was veiled to him. For poor
+Johnson had thus far stepped from one blunder into another. If Coleman
+were completely outside the law, then he, as an executive of the law,
+had no business treating or making agreements with him at all.
+Furthermore, as executive of the State, he had no legal right to
+interfere with city affairs unless formally summoned by the
+authorities--a procedure that had not been adopted. And to cap it all,
+he had for the second time treated with "rebels" and to their
+advantage. For, as the astute Coleman well knew, the final agreement
+was all to the benefit of the committee. They gained the right to place
+a personal guard over the prisoners; they gave, practically, only a
+promise to withdraw that guard before attacking the jail--a procedure
+eminently sensible if they cared anything for the guard.
+
+This little weakness was immediately and vigorously pointed out to
+Johnson when he returned triumphantly to his hotel. Keen minds were
+plenty in the Law and Order party. Johnson was crestfallen. Like all
+men of little calibre elevated by expediency to high office, he wanted
+above everything to have peace, to leave things as they were, to avoid
+friction.
+
+"Upon my word, gentlemen!" cried the governor, dismayed, "I did it for
+the best; and I assure you I am still convinced that this
+agreement--entered into in all faith, and sincerity----"
+
+"Bosh!" boomed Judge Caldwell.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" said Johnson, flushing.
+
+"I said 'bosh,'" repeated the judge, bringing the point of his cane
+against the floor. "You've muddied it, as every sensible man can see.
+Best thing is to put a bold face on it. Take it for granted that the
+committee has promised to surrender all right of action, and that they
+have promised definitely to leave the case to the courts."
+
+"I hardly think they intended that," murmured Johnson.
+
+"Meant!" snorted the judge. "The words will bear that interpretation,
+won't they? Who cares what they meant!"
+
+The following morning this version was industriously passed about. When
+Coleman heard of it he pulled his long moustache.
+
+"The time has come," he said with decision. "After that, it is either
+ourselves or a mob."
+
+He went immediately to the hall.
+
+"Call Olney," he told a messenger. The head of the guard was soon
+before him.
+
+"Olney," said his chief, "will you accept the command of a picked
+company in an important but somewhat perilous movement?"
+
+Olney's tall form stiffened with pleasure.
+
+"I will--with thanks!"
+
+"Well, then, pick out from all the forces, of whatever companies, sixty
+men. Accept none but men--of the very highest bravery. Let them know
+that they are chosen for the post of danger, which is the post of
+honour, and permit none to serve who does not so esteem it."
+
+Olney saluted, and went at once to the main floor, which, for drilling
+purposes, was shared by four companies. He stood still until his eye
+fell on Johnny Fairfax--him he called aside.
+
+"You can get the whole sixty right here if you want to," Johnny told
+him. "But if you want to distribute things----"
+
+"I do," said Olney.
+
+"Then I'd take Keith, Carter, that teamster McGlynn, and Salisbury."
+
+Together they went the rounds of the impromptu armouries, going
+carefully over the rolls, picking a man here and there. By eight
+o'clock the sixty, informed, equipped, and ready, were gathered at the
+hall. Olney dismissed all others, and set himself to drilling his
+picked body.
+
+"I don't care whether you can do 'shoulder arms' or not," he said, "but
+you've got to learn simple evolutions so I can handle you. And you must
+learn one another's faces. Now, come on!"
+
+At two o'clock in the morning he expressed himself as satisfied. From
+the stock of blankets with which the headquarters were already provided
+they selected, bedding, and turned in on the floor. At six o'clock
+Olney began to send out detachments for breakfast.
+
+"Feed up," he advised them. "I don't know what this is all about, but
+it pays to eat well."
+
+By eight o'clock every man was in his place, lined up to rigid
+attention as Coleman entered the building.
+
+"There they are!" said Olney proudly. "Every man of them of good, tough
+courage, and you can handle them as well as any old soldiers!"
+
+Other men came into the hall, some of them in ranks, as they had fallen
+in at their own company headquarters outside, others singly or in
+groups. Doorkeepers prevented all exit; once a man was in, he was not
+permitted to go out. Some of the leaders and captains, among whom were
+Doane, Olney, and Talbot Ward, were summoned to Coleman's room. Shortly
+they emerged, and circulated through the hall giving to each captain of
+a company detailed and explicit directions. Each was instructed as to
+what hour he and his command were to start; from what given point;
+along exactly what route; and at exactly what time he was to arrive at
+another given point--not a moment sooner or later. Each was ignorant as
+to the instructions given the others. Never was a plan better laid out
+for concerted action, and probably never before had such a plan been so
+well carried out. Each captain listened attentively, returned to head
+his company, thoughtful with responsibility.
+
+Olney gave the orders to his picked, company in person. They were told
+to leave their muskets. Armed only with pistols, they were to make
+their way by different routes to the jail.
+
+Keith, and Johnny Fairfax started out together, "This is a mistake, as
+far as I am concerned," observed Keith to his companion. "I can't shoot
+a pistol. I ought to be in the rank and file, not with this picked lot.
+They chose me merely because I was your friend."
+
+"You can make a noise, anyway," replied Johnny, whose eyes were alight
+with excitement. "I wonder what's up? This looks like business! I
+wouldn't miss it for a million dollars!"
+
+Apparently the general populace had no inkling that anything was
+forward. The streets were much as usual except that an inordinate
+amount of street-corner discussion seemed to be going on; but that in
+view of the circumstances was normal. A broad-beamed Irish woman, under
+full sail alone accosted them. Her face Keith vaguely recognized, but
+he could not have told where he had seen it.
+
+"I hear Mr. King, God rest him, is better," she said. "And what are the
+men going to do with that villain, Casey? If the men don't hang him,
+the women will!".
+
+A little farther Keith stopped short at sight of two men hurrying by.
+
+"Hold on, Watkins!" he called.
+
+The four of them drew aside a little, out of the way.
+
+"Weren't you in the jail guard?" asked Keith.
+
+Watkins nodded.
+
+"How does it happen you're outside?"
+
+"The committee sent notice that the truce was over."
+
+Johnny uttered an exultant yell, which he cut short shamefacedly when a
+dozen passersby looked around.
+
+
+
+
+LIX
+
+
+It happened  on this day that Nan Keith had refused an invitation to
+ride with Ben Sansome, but had agreed as a compromise to give him a cup
+of tea late in the afternoon. Nan's mood was latterly becoming more and
+more restless. It was an unconscious reflection of the times,
+unconscious because she had no real conception of what was going on. In
+obedience to Keith's positively expressed request she had kept away
+from the downtown districts, leaving the necessary marketing to Wing
+Sam. For the moment, as has been explained, her points of touch with
+society were limited. It happened that before the trouble began the
+Keiths had been subscribers to the Bulletin and the Herald, and these
+two journals continued to be delivered. Neither of them gave her much
+idea of what was really going on. For a moment her imagination was
+touched by the blank space of white paper the Bulletin left where
+King's editorials had usually been printed, but Thomas King's
+subsequent violence had repelled her. The Herald, after rashly treating
+the "affray" as a street brawl, lost hundreds of subscribers and most
+of its advertising. It shrunk to a sheet a quarter of its usual size.
+Naturally, its editor, John Nugent, was the more solidly and bitterly
+aligned with the Law and Order party. The true importance of the
+revolt, either as an ethical movement or merely as regards its physical
+size, did not get to Nan at all. She knew the time was one of turmoils
+and excitements. She believed the city in danger of mobs. Her attitude
+might be described as a mixture of fastidious disapproval and a
+sympathetic restlessness.
+
+About the middle of the afternoon Mrs. Sherwood came up the front walk
+and rang the bell. Nan, sitting behind lace curtains, was impressed by
+her air of controlled excitement. Mrs. Sherwood hurried. She hurried
+gracefully, to be sure, and with a reminiscence of her usual feline
+indolence; but she hurried, nevertheless. Therefore, Nan herself
+answered the bell, instead of awaiting the deliberate Wing Sam.
+
+"My dear," cried Mrs. Sherwood, "get your mantle, and come with me.
+There's something going to happen-something big!"
+
+She refused to answer Nan's questions.
+
+"You'll see," was all the reply she vouchsafed. "Hurry!"
+
+They crossed by the new graded streets where the sand hills had been,
+and soon found themselves on the low elevations above the county jail.
+Mrs. Sherwood led the way to the porch of a onestory wooden house that
+appeared to be unoccupied.
+
+"This is fine!" she said with satisfaction.
+
+The jail was just below them, and they looked directly across the open
+square in front of it and the convergence of two streets. The jail was
+buzzing like a hive: men were coming and going busily, running away as
+though on errands, or darting in through the open door. Armed men were
+taking their places on the flat roof.
+
+In contrast to this one little spot of excited activity, the rest of
+the scene was almost superlatively peaceful. People were drifting in
+from all the side streets, but they were sauntering slowly, as though
+without particular interest; they might have been going to or coming
+from church. A warm, basking, Sunday feel was in the sunshine. There
+was not the faintest breeze. Distant sounds carried clearly, as the
+barking of a dog--it might have been Gringo shut up at home--or the
+crowing of a distant cock. From the square below arose the murmur of a
+multitude talking. The groups of people increased in frequency, in
+numbers. Black forms began to appear on roof tops all about; white
+faces at windows. It would have been impossible to say when the
+scattered groups became a crowd; when the side of the square filled;
+when the converging streets became black with closely packed people;
+when the windows and doors and balconies, the copings and railings, the
+slopes of the hills were all occupied, but so it was. Before she fairly
+realized that many were gathering, Nan looked down on twenty thousand
+people. They took their positions quietly, and waited. There was no
+shouting, no demonstration, so little talking that the low murmur never
+rendered inaudible the barking of the dog or the crowing of the distant
+cock. The doors of the jail had closed. Men ceased going in and out.
+The armed forces on the roof were increased.
+
+Nan had left off asking questions of Mrs. Sherwood, who answered none.
+The feeling of tense expectation filled her also. What was forward? Was
+this a mob? Why were these people gathered? Somehow they gave her the
+impression that they, too, like Mrs. Sherwood and herself, were waiting
+to see.
+
+After a long time she saw the closely packed crowd down the vista of
+one of the converging streets move in the agitation of some
+disturbance. A moment later the sun caught files of bayonets. At the
+same instant the same thing happened at the end of the other converging
+street. The armed columns came steadily forward, the people giving way.
+Their men were dressed in sober citizens' clothes. The shining steel of
+the bayonets furnished the only touch of uniform. Quietly and steadily
+they came forward, the snake of steel undulating and twisting like a
+living thing. The two columns reached the convergence of the street
+together. As they entered the square before the jail, a third and
+fourth column debouched from side streets, and others deployed into
+view on the hills behind. The timing was perfect. One minute the
+prospect was empty of all but spectators, the next it was filled with
+grim and silent armed men.
+
+Near the two women and among chance spectators on the piazza of the
+deserted house a well-known character of the times leaned against one
+of the pillars. This was Colonel Gift. Our chronicler, who has an eye
+for the telling phrase, describes him as "a tall, lank, empty-bowelled,
+tobacco-spurting Southerner, with eyes like burning black balls, who
+could talk a company of listeners into an insane asylum quicker than
+any man in California, and whose blasphemy could not be equalled,
+either in quantity or quality, by the most profane of any age or
+nation." In this crisis Colonel Gift's sympathies may be guessed. He
+watched the scene below him with a sardonic eye. As the armed columns
+wheeled into place and stood at attention, he turned to a man standing
+near.
+
+"I tell you, stranger," said he, "when you see those damned
+psalm-singing Yankees turn out of their churches, shoulder their guns,
+and march away of a Sunday, you may know that hell is going to crack
+shortly!"
+
+Mrs. Sherwood turned an amused eye in his direction. The colonel, for
+the first time becoming aware of her presence, swept off his black
+slouch hat and apologized profusely for the "damn."
+
+The armed men stood rigid, four deep all around the square. Behind them
+the masses of the people watched. Even the murmur died. Again everybody
+waited.
+
+Now, at a command, the ranks fell apart and from the side street
+marched the sixty men chosen by Olney dragging a field gun at the end
+of a rope. Their preliminary task of watching the jail for a possible
+escape finished, they had been again gathered. With beautiful military
+precision they wheeled and came to rest facing the frowning walls of
+the jail, the cannon pointed at the door.
+
+Nan gasped sharply, and seized Mrs. Sherwood's arm with both hands. She
+had recognized Keith standing by the right wheel of the cannon. He was
+looking straight ahead, and the expression on his face was one she had
+never seen there before. Suddenly something swelled up within her
+breast and choked her. The tears rushed to her eyes.
+
+Quite deliberately, each motion in plain sight, the cannon was loaded
+with powder and ball. A man lit a slow match, blew it painstakingly to
+a glow, then took his position at the breech. The slight innumerable
+sounds of these activities died. The bustle of men moving imperceptibly
+fell. Not even the coughing and sneezing usual to a gathering of people
+paying attention was heard, for the intense interest inhibited these
+nervous symptoms. Probably never have twenty thousand people, gathered
+in one place, made their presence so little evident. A deep, solemn
+stillness brooded over them. The spring sun lay warm and grateful on
+men's shoulders; the doves and birds, the distant dogs and roosters,
+cooed and twittered, barked and crowed.
+
+Nothing happened for full ten minutes. The picked men stood rigid by
+the gun in the middle of the square; the slow match burned sleepily, a
+tiny thread of smoke rising in the still air; the sunlight gleamed from
+the ranks of bayonets; the vast multitude held its breath, the walls of
+the jail remained blank and inscrutable.
+
+Then a man on horseback was seen pushing his way through the crowd. He
+rode directly up to the jail door, on which he rapped thrice with the
+handle of his riding whip. Against the silence these taps, but gently
+delivered, sounded sharp and staccato. After a moment the wicket
+opened. The rider, without dismounting, handed through it a note; then,
+with a superb display of the old-fashioned horsemanship, backed his
+horse half the length of the square where he, too, came to rest.
+
+"Who is he?" whispered Nan. Why she whispered she could not have told.
+
+"Charles Doane," answered Mrs. Sherwood, in the same voice.
+
+Another commotion down the street. Again the ranks parted and closed
+again, this time to admit three carriages driven rapidly. As they came
+to a stop the muskets all around the square leaped to the "present." So
+disconcerting was this sudden slap and rattle of arms after the
+tenseness of the last half hour, that men dodged back as though from a
+blow. With admirable precision, Olney's men, obeying a series of
+commands, moved forward from the gun to form a hollow square around the
+carriages. Only the man with the burning slow match was left standing
+by the breech.
+
+From the carriages then descended Coleman, Truett, Talbot Ward, Smiley,
+and two other men whom neither Nan nor Mrs. Sherwood recognized. Amid
+the dead silence they walked directly to the jail door, Olney's Sixty
+breaking the square and deploying close at their heels. A low colloquy
+through the wicket now took place. At length the door swung slowly
+open. The committee entered. The door swung shut after them. Again the
+people waited, but now once more arose the murmur of low-toned
+conversation.
+
+
+
+
+LX
+
+
+Up to this day Casey had been very content with his situation. His
+quarters were the best the place afforded, and they had been made more
+comfortable. Scores of friends had visited him, hailing him as their
+champion. He had been made to feel quite a hero. To be sure it was a
+nuisance to be so confined; but when he shot King, he had anticipated
+undergoing some inconvenience. It was a price to pay. He understood
+that there was some public excitement, and that it was well to lie low
+for a little until that had died down. The momentary annoyance would be
+more than offset by later prestige. Casey did not in the least fear the
+courts. He had before his eyes too many reassuring examples. His
+friends were rallying nobly to his defence. Over the wines and cigars,
+with which he was liberally supplied, they boasted of their strength
+and their dispositions--the whole police force of the city, the militia
+companies sworn, to act in just such emergencies, hundreds of
+volunteers, if necessary the whole power of the State of California
+called to put down this affronting of duly constituted law!
+
+But this Sunday morning Casey was uneasy. There seemed to be much
+whispering in corners, much bustling to and fro. He paced back and
+forth, fretting, interrogating those about him. But they could or would
+tell him little--there was trouble;--and they fussed away, leaving
+Casey alone. As a matter of fact, the withdrawal of the committee's
+guard of ten, and the formal notice that the truce was thus promptly
+ended, had caught the Law and Order party unprepared. With five hours'
+notice--or indeed by next day, even were no notice given--the jail
+would have been impregnably defended. The sudden move of the committee
+won; as prompt, decisive moves will.
+
+The bustling of the people in the jail suddenly died. Casey heard no
+shuffle of feet, no whisper of conversation. The building might have
+been empty save for himself. But he did hear outside the steady
+rhythmic tramp of feet.
+
+Sheriff Scannell stood before him, the Vigilantes' written
+communication in his hand. Casey, looking up from the bed on which he
+had fallen in sudden shrinking, saw on his face an expression that made
+him cower.  For the first time realization came to him of the straits
+he was in. His vivid Irish imagination leaped instantaneously from the
+complacence of absolute safety to the depths of terror. He sprang to
+his feet.
+
+"You aren't going to betray me! You aren't going to give me up!" he
+cried, wringing his hands.
+
+"James," replied' Scannell solemnly, "there are three thousand armed
+men coming for you, and I have not now thirty supporters around the
+jail."
+
+"Not thirty!" cried. Casey, astonished. For a moment he appeared
+crushed; then leaped to his feet flourishing a long knife he had drawn
+from his boot. "I'll not be taken from this place alive!" he shrieked,
+beside himself with hysteria. "Where are all you brave fellows who were
+going to see me through this?"
+
+Scannell looked at him sadly. In the pause came a sharp knocking at the
+door of the jail. The sheriff turned away. A moment later Casey,
+listening intently, heard the door open and close, heard the sound of
+talking. He fairly darted to his table, scrawled a paper, and called to
+attract attention. Marshal North, answered the summons.
+
+"Give this to them--to the Vigilantes," urged Casey, thrusting the
+paper into his hands. North glanced through the note.
+
+TO THE VIGILANT COMMITTEE. Gentlemen: I am willing to go before you if
+you will let me speak but ten minutes. I do not wish the blood of any
+man upon my head.
+
+JAS. CASEY
+
+But after North had gone to deliver this, Casey again sprang to his
+feet, again flourished his bowie knife, again ramped up and down, again
+swore he would never be taken alive. A deputy passed the door. Casey's
+demeanour collapsed again.
+
+"Tell them," he begged this man earnestly; "tell them if two
+respectable citizens will promise me gentlemanly treatment, I'll go
+peaceably! I will not be dragged through the streets like a dog! If
+they will give me a fair trial and allow me to summon my witnesses,
+I'll yield!"
+
+And the deputy left him pacing up and down, waving his knife, muttering
+wildly to, himself.
+
+On entering the jail door Coleman and his companions bowed formally to
+the sheriff.
+
+"We have come for the prisoner, Casey," said Coleman. "We ask that he
+be peaceably delivered us handcuffed, at the door, immediately."
+
+"Under existing circumstances," replied Scannell, "I shall make no
+resistance. The prison and its contents are yours."
+
+But Truett interrupted pointedly:
+
+"We want only the man Casey, at present," he said. "For the rest we
+hold you strictly accountable."
+
+Scannell bowed without reply. North and the deputy came in succession
+to deliver Casey's messages, and to report his apparent determination.
+The committee offered no comment. They penetrated to the ulterior of
+the jail. Many men, apparently unarmed, idling about as though merely
+spectators, looked at them curiously as they passed. Casey heard them,
+coming and sprang back from the door, holding his long knife
+dramatically poised. Coleman walked directly to the door, where he
+stopped, looking Casey coldly in the eye. The seconds, passed. Neither
+man stirred. At the end of a full minute Coleman said sharply:
+
+"Lay down that knife!"
+
+As though his incisive tones had broken the spell, Casey moved. He
+looked wildly to right and to left; then flung the knife from him and
+buried his face in his hands.
+
+"Your requests are granted," said Coleman shortly; then to Marshal
+North: "Open the door and bring him out."
+
+
+
+
+LXI
+
+
+On the veranda of the unoccupied house above the jail Nan Keith stood
+rigid, her hand upon her heart. During the period of the committee's
+absence inside the jail she did not alter her position by a hair's
+breadth. She was in the hypnosis of a portentous waiting. Time fell
+into the abyss of eternity: whether it were ten minutes or ten hours
+did not matter in the least.
+
+For this was to Nan in the nature of a revelation so sudden and so
+complete that it filled her whole soul. Had she known what Mrs.
+Sherwood was taking her to see, she would have pre-visualized a
+drunken, disorderly, howling, bloodthirsty mob; a huge composite of
+brawling antagonisms, of blind fury, of vulgar irrationalisms. Here
+were men filled with purpose; This was what caught at her breath--the
+grim silent purpose of it! The orderly progression of events, moving
+with the certainty of a fate, was like the steady crescendo of solemn
+music. And this crescendo rose in her as a tide of emotion that
+overflowed and drowned her. The right and wrong--as she had examined
+them intellectually or through, the darkened glasses of her caste
+prejudices--were quite lost. This was merely something primitive,
+wonderful, beautiful. The spectacle was at the moment of suspense, yet
+she felt so impatience--the wheel must turn in its own majestic
+circle--but only an intense expectation. And in this she felt,
+subconsciously, that she was one with the multitude.
+
+The jail door swung open. The committee came out. In the middle of
+their compact group walked a stranger.
+
+"Casey!" breathed a vast voice from the crowd.
+
+An indescribable burst of grateful relief fluttered across the upturned
+faces as a breeze across water. It was almost timid at first, but
+gathered strength as it spread. It rolled up the hillside. A great,
+deep breath seemed to fill the lungs of the throng. The murmur swelled
+suddenly, was on the point of bursting into the frantic cheering of
+twenty thousand men.
+
+But Coleman, his hat removed, raised his hand. In obedience to the
+simple gesture the cheer was stifled. In an instant all was still. The
+little group entered the carriages, which immediately wheeled and drove
+away.
+
+Nan, standing bolt upright, her attitude still unchanged, caught her
+breath at the inhibition of the cheer. She did not even try to wink
+away the tears that rolled down her cheeks. Through them she saw the
+troops wheel with the precision of veterans, and march away after the
+carriages. The crowd melted slowly. Soon were left only the inscrutable
+jail, the gun still pointed at its door, the rigid ranks of Olney's
+Sixty, who had evidently been left on guard, and a few stragglers.
+
+Suddenly she turned and walked away. Mrs. Sherwood followed her as
+rapidly as she could, but did not succeed in catching up with her. At
+the corner below the Keiths' house she stopped, watched until Nan had
+gained her own dooryard, then turned toward home, a smile sketching her
+lips, a light in her eyes.
+
+Nan flung open her door and went directly to the parlour. She stood in
+the doorway contemplating the scene. It was very cozy. The afternoon
+sun slanted through the high-narrow windows of the period, gilding the
+dust motes floating lazily to and fro. The tea table, set with a snowy
+doth, glittered invitingly, its silver and porcelain, its plates of
+dainty sandwiches and thin waferlike cookies--Wing Sam's
+specialty--enticingly displayed. Two easy chairs had been drawn close,
+and, before the unoccupied one a low footstool had been placed. Ben
+Sansome sat in the other. He was, as usual, exquisitely dressed. All
+his little appointments were not only correct but worn easily. The
+varicoloured waistcoat, the sparkling studs and cravat pins, the
+bright, soft silk tie, were all subdued from their ordinary too-vivid
+effect by the grace with which they were carried. Nan saw all this, and
+appreciated it dispassionately, appraising him anew through clarified
+vision. Especially she noticed the waxed ends of his small moustache.
+He had, at the sound of her entrance, lighted the tea kettle; and as
+she came in he smiled up at her brightly.
+
+"You see," he cried gayly, "I am doing your task for you! I have the
+lamp all lit!"
+
+She paid no attention to this, but advanced two steps into the room.
+
+"Which side are you on, anyway?" she asked abruptly and a little
+harshly.
+
+Sansome raised his eyebrows in faint and fastidious surprise.
+
+"Dear lady, what do you mean?"
+
+"The only thing I can mean in these times: are you with the Law and
+Order, or with the Committee of Vigilance?"
+
+Sansome shrugged his shoulders whimsically and sank back into his chair.
+
+"How can you ask that, dear lady?" he begged pathetically. "You would
+not class me with the rabble, I hope."
+
+But Nan did not in the slightest degree respond to the lightness of his
+tone. Her own was cold and detached.
+
+"I do not know how to class you," she said. "But I asked you a
+question."
+
+Sansome arose to his feet again. His manner now became sympathetic, but
+into it had crept the least hint of resentment.
+
+"I don't understand your mood" he told her. "You are overwrought."
+
+Nan's self-control slipped by ever so little. She did not actually
+stamp her foot, but her delivery of her next speech achieved that for
+her.
+
+"Will you answer me?" she demanded. "Which side, are you on?"
+
+"I am on the side every gentleman is on," replied Sansome, a trifle
+stung. "The side of the law."
+
+"Then," she cried, with a sudden intensity, "why weren't you there--on
+your side--defending the jail?' Why are you here?"
+
+Ben Sansome's knowledge of women was wide, and he therefore imagined it
+profound. Here he recognized the symptoms of hysteria; cause unknown.
+He adopted the lightly soothing.
+
+"I thought I was asked here!" he cried with quizzical mock pathos.
+
+She stared at him a contemplative instant so steadily that he coloured.
+She was not seeing him, however; she was seeing Keith, standing with
+his fellows in the open, under the walls of the jail and its hidden
+guns. With a short laugh she turned away.
+
+"You were," said she. "Help yourself to tea. As you say, I am
+overwrought. I am going to lie down."
+
+Her one compelling instinct now was to get away from him before
+something in her brain snapped. He became soothing.
+
+"Won't you have a cup of tea first?" he urged. "It will do you good."
+
+"A cup of tea!" she repeated with deadly calm. It seemed such an ending
+to such a day! She tried to laugh, but strangled in her throat; and she
+bolted wildly from the room, leaving Ben Sansome staring.
+
+
+
+
+LXII
+
+
+Nan's high exaltation of spirit, which still soared at the altitude to
+which the events of the afternoon had lifted it, next expressed itself
+in a characteristically feminine manner: she picked flowers in the
+garden, arranged them, placed them effectively, set the table herself,
+lighted the lamps, touched a match to the wood fire always comfortable
+in San Francisco evenings, slightly altered the position of the chairs,
+visited Wing Sam with fresh instructions. Gringo, who looked on all
+this as for his especial benefit, took his place luxuriously before the
+grate.  It was a cozy, homelike scene.  Then she dressed slowly and
+carefully in her most becoming gown--the only gown Keith had ever
+definitely singled out for individual praise--took especial pains with
+her hair, and finally descended to join Gringo. The latter, as a
+greeting intended to show his entire confidence, promptly rolled over
+to expose his vitals to her should it be her pleasure to hurt a poor
+defenceless dog. He was a ridiculous sight, upside down, his tongue
+lolling out, his eye rolled up at her adoringly. She laughed at him a
+little, then leaned swiftly over to confide something in his ear.
+
+But that evening Keith was late. The clock on the mantel chimed clearly
+the hour, then the quarter and the half. Wing Sam came to protest
+aggreivedly that "him glub catchum cold--you no wait!" Nan was severe
+with Wing Sam and his suggestion--so unwontedly severe that Wing Sam
+returned to the kitchen muttering darkly. He had caught the atmosphere
+of celebration, somehow, and on his own-initiative had frosted with
+wonderful white a cake not yet cut, and on the cake had carefully
+traced pink legends in Chinese and English characters. The former was
+one of those conventional mottoes seen on every laundry, club, and
+temple which would have translated "Health, long life, and happiness";
+the other Wing Sam had copied from a lithograph he much admired. It
+read "Use Rising Sun Stove Polish." Glowering with resentment, Wing Sam
+scraped the frosting from the cake.
+
+At eight o'clock a small boy delivered a note at the door and scuttled
+back to the centre of excitement. It was a scrawl from Keith, saying
+that he was detained, would not be home to dinner, might not be in at
+all. Nan sat down to a cold, belated meal served by a loftily
+disapproving Chinaman. She tried to think of her pride in Keith, and
+the work he, in company with his fellows, was doing for the city; to
+recall some of her exaltation of the afternoon; but it was very
+difficult. Her little preparations were so much nearer. The table, the
+flowers, the shaded lamps, the fire on the hearth, her gown, the twist
+of her hair, all mocked her anticipations. In spite of herself her
+spirits went down to zero. She could not eat, she could not even sit at
+the table through the service of the various courses. Midway in the
+meal she threw aside her napkin and returned abruptly to the
+drawing-room. The fire was snapping merrily on the hearth. Gringo
+opened his eyes at her entrance, recognized his beloved mistress, and
+rolled over as usual, all four legs in the air, his tender stomach
+confidingly exposed, for Who could be so brutal as to hurt a poor,
+defenceless dog? Nan kicked him pettishly in the ribs. Gringo stopped
+panting, and drew in his tongue, but otherwise did not shift his
+posture. This was, of course, a mistake. Nan kicked him again. Gringo
+rose deliberately and retired with dignity to the coldest, darkest,
+most cheerless corner he could find, where he sat and looked dejected.
+
+"You look such a silly fool!" Nan told him relentlessly.
+
+Thus passed the moment of exaltation and expansion. If Keith had come
+home to dine, it is probable that the barrier between them--of which he
+was only dimly conscious--would have been broken. But by midnight Nan
+had, as she imagined, "thought out" the situation. She was able to see
+him now through eyes purged of self-pity or self-thought. She came to
+full realization, which she formulated to herself, that she was not now
+the central point of his interest--that she was "no longer" the central
+point, as she expressed it. She was right also in her conclusion that
+all day long he hardly gave her more than a perfunctory thought. So
+far, her facts were absolutely correct. But Nan was, in spite of her
+natural good mind and married experience, too ignorant of man
+psychology to draw the true conclusion. Indeed, very few women ever
+realize man's possibilities of single-minded purpose and concentration
+to the temporary exclusion of other things. Keith's whole being was
+carried by this moral movement in which he was involved. He simply took
+Nan for granted; and that is something a woman never gets used to, and
+always misinterprets.
+
+"He no longer loves me!" she said to herself, in this hour of plain
+thinking. She faced it squarely; and her heart sank to the depths; for
+she still loved him, and the sight of him that afternoon amid the guns
+had told her how much.
+
+But her next thought was not of herself, but of him, and the situation
+in which, he was working out his destiny. "How can I best help?" she
+asked herself, which showed that the spirit aroused in her that
+afternoon had not in reality died. And her intellect relentlessly
+pointed out to her that her only aid would come from her
+self-effacement, her standing one side. When the great work was done,
+then, perhaps--
+
+So affairs in the Keith household went on exactly as before. Nobody but
+Gringo knew that anything had happened; and he only realized that the
+universe had suffered an upheaval, so that now mistresses might kick
+their poor defenceless dogs in the stomach.
+
+
+
+
+LXIII
+
+
+Casey was safely in custody. Cora also had been taken on a second trip
+to the jail. They had been escorted into the headquarters, the doors of
+which had closed behind them and behind the armed men who guarded them.
+The streets were filled with an orderly crowd. They waited with that
+same absence of excitement, impatience, or tumult so characteristic of
+all the popular gatherings of that earnest time, save when the
+upholders of the law were gathered. After a long interval one of the
+committeemen, Dows by name, appeared at an upper window. He did not
+have to appeal for attention, and had barely to raise his voice.
+
+"It is not the intention of the committee to be hasty," he announced.
+"Nothing more will be done to-day."
+
+Silence greeted this statement. At last some one spoke up:
+
+"Where are Casey and Cora?" he asked.
+
+"The committee holds possession of the jail; all are safe," replied
+Dows.
+
+With this assurance the crowd was completely satisfied, as it proved by
+dispersing quietly and at once.
+
+Of the three thousand enrolled men, three hundred were retained under
+arms at headquarters; a hundred surrounded and watched the jail; the
+rest were dismissed. About midnight a dense fog descended on the city.
+The streets were deserted. But on the roofs of the jail and the
+adjacent buildings indistinct figures stalked to and fro in the misty
+moonlight.
+
+All next day, which was Monday, headquarters remained inscrutable.
+Small activities went forward. Guards and patrols were changed. The
+cannon was brought from before the jail. Early in the day a huge crowd
+gathered, packing the adjacent streets, watching patiently far into the
+night to see what would happen. Nothing happened.
+
+But about the city at large patrols of armed men moved on mysterious
+business. Gun shops were picketed, and their owners forbidden to sell
+weapons. Evidently the committee was carrying out a considered plan.
+
+Toward evening the weather thickened and a rain came on. It turned
+colder. Still the crowd did not disperse. It stood in its sodden shoes,
+hugging its sodden cloaks to its shoulders, humped over, waiting. About
+eight o'clock several companies in rigid marching formation appeared. A
+stir of interest, shivered through the crowd, but died as it became
+evident that this was only a general relief for those on duty during
+the day. At midnight, or thereabouts, the crowd went home; but again by
+first daylight the streets for blocks were jammed full. Still it rained
+with a sullen, persistence. Still nothing happened.
+
+And all over the city business was practically at a stand. Knots of men
+stood conferring on every corner. Conversation in mixed company was
+very wary indeed. No man dared express himself too openly. The courts
+were empty. Some actually closed, on one excuse or another, but most
+went through a form of business. Some judges took the occasion to go to
+White Sulphur Springs on vacations, long contemplated, they said. These
+things occasioned lively comment. It was generally known that the
+Sacramento steamer of the evening before had carried several hundred
+passengers, all with pressing business at the capitol, or somewhere
+else. As our chronicler tells it: "A good many who had things on their
+minds left for the country." Still it rained; still the crowd waited;
+still the headquarters of the Committee of Vigilance remained closed
+and inscrutable.
+
+
+
+
+LXIV
+
+
+During all this time the Executive Committee sat in continuous session,
+for it had been agreed that no recess of more than thirty minutes
+should be taken until a decision had been reached. The room in which
+they sat was a large one, lighted by windows on one side only. Coleman
+sat behind a raised desk at one end. Below it stood a small table
+accommodating two. On either side six small tables completed three
+sides of a hollow square. No ornament, no especial comforts--the desk,
+the thirteen pine tables, the twenty-eight pine chairs, the wooden
+walls, the oil lamps, the four long windows--that was all.
+
+The prisoners, who, when they had seen the thousands before the jail,
+had expected nothing less than instant execution by lynch law, began to
+take heart. After a man has faced what he thinks is the prospect of
+immediate and unavoidable death, such treatment as this arouses real
+hope. The prisoners were strictly guarded and closely confined, it is
+true, but they understood they were to have a fair trial "according to
+law." That last phrase cheered them immensely. They knew the law. Nor
+were they entirely cut off from the outside. Casey was allowed to see
+several men in regard to certain pressing business matters, and was
+permitted to talk to them freely, although always in the presence of a
+member of the committee. Cora received visits from Belle. She had spent
+thousands in his legal defence; now she came to see him faithfully, and
+tried to cheer him, but was plainly cowed. Her self-control had
+vanished. She clung to him passionately, weeping. He was forced to what
+should have been her role; and in cheering her he managed to gain a
+modicum of self-confidence for himself. She left him at midnight, much
+reassured.
+
+But on Monday morning Cora's cell door was thrown open, and he was
+motioned forth by a grave man, who conducted him through echoing gloomy
+corridors to the committee room, where he was left facing the tables
+and the men who sat behind them. Cora's natural buoyancy vanished. The
+men before him met his gaze with rigid, unbending solemnity. The rain
+beat mournfully against the windows, blurring the glass, casting the
+high apartment in a half gloom. Nobody moved or spoke. All looked at
+him. The echo of his footsteps died, and the room was cast in stillness
+except for the soft dashing of the storm.
+
+"Charles Cora," at last pronounced Coleman in measured tones, "you are
+here on trial for your life, accused with the murder of United States
+Marshal Richardson."
+
+Cora, who was a plucky man, had recovered his wits. He must have
+realized that he was in a tight place, but he kept his head admirably.
+His demeanour took on alertness, his manner throughout was respectful,
+and his voice low.
+
+"Do I get no counsel?" he inquired.
+
+"Counsel will be given you."
+
+He put in an earnest plea for counsel outside the tribunal--impartial
+counsel.
+
+"Our members are impartial," Coleman told him.
+
+Cora hesitated; locking about him.
+
+"If Mr. Truett will act for me," he suggested; "and I beg you
+earnestly, gentlemen, that the excitement of the time may not be
+prejudicial to my interests, that I may have a chance for my life!"
+
+"Your trial will be fair," he was assured.
+
+"I shall undertake the defence," Truett agreed briefly; "and petition
+that Mr. Smiley be appointed as my assistant."
+
+This being granted, the three men drew one side for a consultation. In
+a short time Truett handed to the sergeant-at-arms--the same man who
+had conducted Cora to the tribunal--a list of the witnesses Cora wished
+to summon. These were at once sought by a subcommittee outside. In the
+meantime, witnesses for the prosecution were one by one admitted,
+sworn, and examined. All ordinary forms of law were closely followed.
+All essential facts were separately brought out. It was the historic
+Cora trial over again, with one difference--gone were the technical
+delays. By dusk Keith, who had been called at three, had all but
+completed the long tale of his testimony, had finished recounting, not
+only what he had seen of the quarrel and the subsequent shooting, but
+also a detailed account of the trial, the adverse influences brought to
+bear on the prosecution, and his investigations into the question of
+"undue influence." No attempt was made to confine the investigation to
+the technical trial.
+
+Keith was the last witness for the prosecution. And the witnesses for
+the defence, where were they? Of the list submitted by Cora not one
+could be found! In hiding, afraid, the perjurers would not appear!
+
+The dusk was falling in earnest now. The corners of the room were in
+darkness. Beneath Coleman's desk Bluxome, the secretary, had lighted an
+oil lamp the better to see his notes. In the interest of Keith's
+testimony the general illumination had not been ordered. Outside the
+tiny patch of yellow light the men of Vigilance sat motionless,
+listening, their shadows dim and huge against the wall.
+
+The door opened, and Charles Doane, the Grand Marshal of the
+Vigilantes, advanced three steps into the room.
+
+"Mr. President," he said clearly, his voice cutting the stillness, "I
+am instructed to announce that James King of William is dead."
+
+
+
+
+LXV
+
+
+Thursday noon was set for the funeral of the man who had given his life
+that a city might live. In the room where he had made his brave fight
+against death he now lay in state. On Wednesday ten thousand people
+visited him there. Early Thursday morning his remains were transferred
+to the Unitarian Church where, early as it was, a great multitude had
+gathered to do him honour. Now through the long morning hours it sat
+with him silently. The church was soon filled to over-flowing; the
+streets in all directions became crowded with sober-faced men and
+women. They knew they would be unable to get into the church, to attend
+nearer his last communion with his fellowmen, but they stayed, feeling
+vaguely that their mere presence helped--as, indeed, perhaps it did.
+Marching bodies from every guild or society in the city stood in rank
+after rank, extending down the street as far as the eye could reach.
+Hundreds of horsemen, carriages, foot marchers, quietly, orderly, were
+already getting into line. They, too, were excluded from the funeral
+ceremonies by lack of room; they, too, waited to do honour to the
+cortege. This procession was over two miles in length. Each man wore a
+band of crepe around his left arm. The time set for the funeral
+ceremony was yet hours distant.
+
+It seemed that all the city must be there. But those who, hurrying to
+the scene, had occasion to pass near the Vigilante headquarters found
+the vacant square guarded on all sides by a triple line of armed men.
+The side streets, also, were filled with them. They stood in exact
+alignment, rigid, bayonets fixed, their eyes straight ahead. Three
+thousand of them were there. Hour after hour they stood, untiring,
+staring at the building, which gave no sign; just as the other
+multitude, only a few squares away, stood hour after hour, patiently
+waiting in the bright sun.
+
+At quarter before one the upper windows of the headquarters building
+were thrown open, and small platforms, extending about three feet, were
+thrust from two of them. An instant later two heavy beams were shoved
+out from the flat roof directly over the platforms. From the ends of
+the beams dangled nooses of rope. A dead wait ensued. Across the
+silence could be heard faintly from the open windows of the distant
+church the chords of an organ, the rise and fall of a hymn, then the
+measured cadence of oration. The funeral services had begun.
+
+As though this were a signal, the blinds that had partly closed the
+window openings were swung back, and Charles Cora was conducted to the
+end of one of the little platforms. His face was covered with a white
+handkerchief, and his arms and legs were bound with cords. The
+attendant adjusted the noose, then left him. An instant later Casey
+appeared. He had petitioned not to be blindfolded, so his face was
+bare. Cora stood bolt upright, motionless as a stone. Casey's nerve had
+left him; his face was pale and his eyes bloodshot. As the attendant
+placed the noose, the murderer's eyes darted here and there over the
+square. Did he still expect that the boastful promises of his friends
+would be fulfilled, did he still hope for rescue? If so, that hope must
+have died as he looked down on those set, grim faces staring straight
+ahead, on that sinister ring of steel. He began to babble.
+
+"Gentlemen!" he cried at them, "I am not a murderer! I do not feel
+afraid to meet my God on a charge of murder! I have done nothing but
+what I thought was right! To-morrow let no editor dare call me a
+murderer! Whenever I was injured I have resented it. It has been part
+of my education during twenty-nine years! Gentlemen, I forgive you this
+persecution! O God! My poor mother! O God!"
+
+Not one word of contrition; not one word for the man who lay yonder in
+the church; not one syllable for the heartbroken wife kneeling at the
+coffin! He ceased. And his words went out into the void and found no
+echo against that wall of steel.
+
+They waited. For what? Across the intervening housetops the sound of
+speaking ceased to carry. The last orator had given place. At the door
+of the sanctuary was visible a slight, commotion: the coffin was being
+carried out. It was placed in the hearse. Every head was bared. There
+ensued a slight pause; then from overhead the great bell boomed once.
+Another bell in the next block answered. A third, more distant, chimed
+in. From all parts of the city tolled the solemn requiem.
+
+At the first stroke the long cortege moved forward toward Lone
+Mountain; at the first stroke the Vigilantes, as one man, presented
+arms; at the first stroke the platforms dropped and Casey and Cora fell
+into the abyss of eternity.
+
+
+
+
+LXVI
+
+
+This execution occasioned a great storm of indignation among the
+adherents of law and order. Serious-minded men, like Judge Shattuck,
+admitted the essential justice rendered, but condemned strongly the
+method.
+
+"Of course they were murderers," cried the judge, "and of course they
+should have been hung, and of course the city is better off without
+either of them. I'm not afraid of their friends, and I don't care who
+knows what I think! And some very worthy citizens, wrongly, are
+involved in this, some citizens whom otherwise I greatly respect. It is
+better that a hundred criminals should escape than that the whole law
+of California should be outraged by an act that denies at once the
+value and the authority of our government. The energy, the talent for
+organization, that this committee has displayed in the exercise of
+usurped authority, might have been directed in aid of the courts,
+consistently with the constitution and the laws, with, equal if not
+greater efficiency."
+
+But very few were able to see it in this calm spirit. The ruling class,
+the "chivalry," the best element of the city had been slapped in the
+face. And by whom? By a lot of "Yankee shopkeepers," assisted by
+renegades like Keith, Talbot Ward, and others. The committee was a lot
+of stranglers; they ought to be punished as murderers; they ought to be
+shot down, egad, as revolutionaries! It was realized that street
+shooting had temporarily become unsafe; otherwise, there is no doubt
+that the hotheads would have gone forth deliberately abrawling. There
+were many threats made against individuals, many condign--and
+lawless--punishments promised them.
+
+As an undercurrent, nowhere expressed or even acknowledged, was a
+strong feeling of relief. Any Law and Order would have fought at the
+mere suggestion; but every one of them felt it. After all, the law had
+been surprised and overpowered. It had yielded only to overwhelming
+odds. With the execution of Cora and Casey accomplished, the committee
+might be expected to disband. And, of course, when it did disband, then
+the law would have its innings. Its forces would be better organized
+and consolidated, its power assured. It could then apprehend and bring
+to justice the ringleaders of this unwarranted undertaking. Like dogs
+at the heels of a retreating foe, the hotheads became bolder as this
+secret conviction gained strength. They were in favour of using an
+armed force to take Coleman and his fellow-conspirators into the
+custody of the law. Calmer spirits held this scheme in check.
+
+"Let them have rope," advised Blatchford. "I know mobs. Now that
+they've hung somebody, their spirit will die down. Give them a few
+days."
+
+But to the surprise, and indignation of these people, the Vigilantes
+showed no of an intention to disband. On the contrary, their activities
+extended and their organization tightened. The various companies
+drilled daily until they went through evolutions and the manual of arms
+with all the perfection of regular troops. The committee's books
+remained open; by the last of the week over seven thousand men had
+signed the rolls. Vanloads of furniture and various supplies were
+backed up before the doors of headquarters, and were carried within by
+members of the organization--no non-member ever saw the inside of the
+building while it was occupied by the Vigilantes. The character of
+these furnishings and supplies would seem to argue an intention of
+permanence. Stoves, cooking utensils, cot beds, provisions, blankets,
+bulletin boards, arms, chairs, tables, field guns, ammunition, were
+only some items. Doorkeepers were always in attendance. Sentinels
+patrolled the streets and the roof. The great warehouse took on an
+exceedingly animated appearance.
+
+The Executive Committee was in session all of each day. It became known
+that a "black list" of some sort was in preparation. On the heels of
+this orders came for the Vigilante police, instructing them to arrest
+certain men and to warn certain others to leave town immediately. It
+was evident that a clean sweep was contemplated.
+
+Among the first of those arrested was the notorious Yankee Sullivan, an
+ex-prize fighter, ward heeler, ballot-box staffer, and shoulder
+striker. He had always been a pillar of strength to those engaged in
+corrupt practices. This man went to pieces completely. He confessed the
+details of many of his own crimes but, what was more important,
+implicated many others as well. His testimony was invaluable, not
+necessarily as final proof against those whom he accused, but as
+indications for thorough investigations. Finally, unexpectedly, he
+committed suicide in his cell. It seems he had been accustomed to from
+sixty to eighty drinks of whiskey a day, and the sudden, complete
+deprivation had destroyed him. Warned by this, the committee
+henceforward issued regular rations of whiskey to its prisoners!
+
+Trials in due order, with counsel for defence and ample opportunity to
+call witnesses, went on briskly. Those who anticipated more hangings
+were disappointed. It became known that the committee had set for
+itself the rule that capital punishment would be inflicted only for
+crimes so punishable by the regular law. But each outgoing ship carried
+crowds of those on whom had been passed the sentence of banishment. The
+majority of these were, of course, low thugs, "Sydney ducks," hangers
+on; but a very large proportion were taken from what had been known as
+the city's best. In the law courts these men would in many cases have
+been declared as white as the driven snow. But they were undesirable
+citizens; the committee so decided them; and bade them begone. Charles
+Duane, Wooley Kearney, William Carr, Edward Bulger, Philander Brace,
+William McLean, J.D. Musgrave, and Peter Wightman were well-known and
+influential names found on the "black list," Peter Wightman, James
+White, and our old friend, Ned McGowan, ran away. Hundreds of others
+left the city. A terror spread among the ignorant and vicious of the
+underworld. Some of the minor offenders brought in by the Vigilante
+police were by the Executive Committee turned over to the regular law
+courts. _Every one of such cases was promptly convicted by those
+courts_!
+
+This did not look much like disbanding, nor did any opportunity for
+wholesale arrest of the anarchists seem imminent. The leaders of the
+Law and Order faction were at last aroused.
+
+"This is more than anarchy; it is revolution," said Judge Caldwell. "It
+is a successful revolution because it is organized. The people of this
+city are scattered and powerless. They in turn should be organized to
+combat the forces of disorder."
+
+In pursuance of this belief--that the public at large needed only to be
+called together in order to defend its institutions--handbills were
+printed and newspaper notices published calling a meeting for June and
+in Portsmouth Square. Elaborate secret preparations, involving certain
+distributions of armed men were made to prevent what was considered
+certain interference. This was useless. Immediately after the
+appearance of the notice the Committee of Vigilance issued orders that
+the meeting was in no manner to be disturbed, and hung out placards
+reading:
+
+"Members of the Vigilance Committee: Order must be maintained."
+
+"Friends of the Vigilance Committee: Keep out of the Square," etc.
+
+The meeting was well attended. Enormous crowds gathered, not only in
+and around the square itself, but in balconies and windows and on
+housetops. It was a ribald, disrespectful crowd, evidently out for a
+good time, calling back and forth, shouting question or comment at the
+men gathered about the speaker's platform.
+
+"What kind of a circus do you call this show, anyway?" roared a huge,
+bare-armed miner in red shirt.
+
+"This is the Law and Murder meeting," instantly answered some one from
+a balcony.
+
+This phrase tickled the crowd hugely. The words were passed from man to
+man. Eventually they became the stereotyped retort. "Stranglers!"
+sneered one faction. "Law and Murder!" flung back the other.
+
+On the platform stood or sat the owners of many of the city's proud
+names--judges, jurists, merchants, holders of high political office,
+men whose influence a month ago had been paramount and irresistible.
+Among them were famed orators, men who had never failed to hold and
+influence a crowd.  But two hundred feet away little could be heard. It
+early became evident that, though there would be no interference, the
+sentiment of the crowd was against them. And, what was particularly
+maddening, the sentiment was good-humoured. Even the compliment of
+being taken seriously was denied them!
+
+Colonel Ed Baker came forward to speak. The colonel's gift of eloquence
+was such that, in spite of his known principles, his lack of scruple,
+his insincerity, he won his way to a picturesque popularity and fame.
+Later he delivered a funeral oration over the remains of David
+Broderick that has gone far to invest the memory of that hard-headed,
+venal, unscrupulous politician with an aura of romance. But the crowd
+would have little of him this day. An almost continuous uproar drowned
+his efforts. Catch words such as liberty, constitution, _habeas
+corpus_, trial by jury, freedom, etc., occasionally became audible. The
+people were not interested.
+
+"See Cora's defender!" cried someone, voicing the general suspicion
+that Baker had been one of the little gambler's hidden counsel. "Cora!"
+"Ed Baker!" "Ten thousand dollars!" "Out of that, you old reprobate!"
+jeered the audience. He spoke ten minutes against the storm, then
+yielded, red faced and angry. Others tried in vain. A Southerner named
+Benham, while deploring passionately the condition of the city which
+had been seized by a mob, robbed of its sacred rights, etc., happened
+inadvertently to throw back his coat, thus revealing the butt of a
+Colt's revolver. The bystanders caught the point at once.
+
+"There's a pretty Law and Order man!" they shrieked. "Hey, Benham!
+Don't you know it's against the law to go armed?"
+
+"I carry this weapon," shrieked Benham, passionately shaking his fist,
+"not as an instrument to overthrow the law, but to uphold it!"
+
+A clear, steady voice from a nearby balcony made itself distinctly
+heard:
+
+"In other words, sir, you break the law in order to uphold the law," it
+said. "What more are the Vigilantes doing?"
+
+The crowd went wild over this repartee. The confusion became worse. Old
+Judge Campbell was thrust forward, in the hope that his age and his
+senior judgeship would command respect. He was unable to utter
+consecutive sentences.
+
+"I once thought," he interrupted himself piteously, "that I was the
+free citizen of a free country, but recent occurrences have convinced
+me that I am a slave; a slave, gentlemen, more a slave than any on a
+Southern plantation for they know their masters, but I know not mine!"
+
+But his auditors refused to be affected.
+
+"Oh, yes, you do!" they informed him. "You know your masters as well as
+anybody--two of them were hung the other day!"
+
+After this the meeting broke up. The most ardent Law and Order man
+could not deny that as a popular demonstration it had been a fizzle.
+
+But if this attempt at home to gain coherence failed, up river the
+partisans had better luck. A hasty messenger with tidings for the ear
+of the Executive Committee only was followed by rapidly spreading
+rumours. Five hundred men with two pieces of artillery were coming down
+from Sacramento to liberate the prisoners, especially Billy Mulligan,
+or die in the attempt. They were reported to be men from the southeast:
+Texans, Carolinians, crackers from Pike County, all fire-eaters,
+reckless, sure to make trouble. Their numbers were not in themselves
+formidable, but every man knew the city still to be full of scattered
+warriors needing only leaders and a rallying point. The materials for a
+very pretty civil war were laid for the match. An uneasiness pervaded
+headquarters, not for the outcome, but for the unavoidable fighting and
+bloodshed.
+
+Therefore, when Olney hastily entered the main hall early in the
+evening, and in a loud voice called for "two hundred men with side arms
+for especial duty," there was a veritable scramble to enlist. Olney
+picked out the required number, selecting, it was afterward noticed,
+only the big men physically. They fell in, and were marched quickly out
+Market Street. It was dark. Expectations were high. Just beyond Second
+Street, dimly visible against the sky or in the faint starlight, they
+saw a mysterious force opposing them, men on foot, horses, the wheels
+of guns. Each man gripped his revolver and set his teeth. Here,
+evidently, from this ordinarily deserted and distant part of town, a
+flanking attack was to have been delivered. As they drew nearer they
+made out wagons; and nearer still-bale upon bale of gunny sacks, and
+shovels!
+
+The truth dawned on them, and a great laugh went up. "Sold! Sold!
+Sold!" they cried.
+
+But they set to work with a will, filled the gunny sacks with sand,
+piled them on the wagons; and so by morning Fort Gunnybags, as
+headquarters was thenceforth called, came into existence. Cannon were
+mounted, breastworks piled, embrasures planned.
+
+The five hundred fire-eaters were no myth. They disembarked, greeted
+the horde of friends who had come to meet them, marched to Fort
+Gunnybags, looked it over, thrust their hands in their pockets, and
+walked peacefully away to the nearest barrooms!
+
+Wise men. By now the Vigilante dispositions were so complete that in
+the mere interest of examining so sudden yet so thorough an
+organization, a paragraph or so may profitably be spent on it. Behind
+headquarters was a long shed stable in which were to be found at all
+hours saddle horses and artillery horses, all saddled and bridled,
+ready for instant use. Twenty-six pieces of artillery, mostly sent in
+by captains of merchant vessels in the harbour, were here parked. Other
+cannon were mounted for the defence of Fort Gunnybags. Muskets, rifles,
+and sabres enough to arm 6,000 men had been accumulated--and there were
+6,000 men to use them! A French portable barricade had been constructed
+in the event of possible street fighting, a sort of wheeled framework
+that could be transformed into litters or scaling ladders. Sutlers'
+offices and kitchens could feed a small army. Flags and painted signs
+carrying the emblematic open eye of vigilance decorated the rooms, A
+huge alarm bell had been mounted on the roof. The mattresses, beds,
+cots, blankets, and other furniture necessary to sleep four companies
+on the premises had been provided. A completely equipped armourer's
+shop and a hospital with all supplies occupied the third story. The
+forces were divided into four companies of artillery, one squadron and
+two troops of cavalry, four regiments, and thirty-two companies of
+infantry; besides the small but efficient police organization. A tap on
+the bell gathered these men in an incredibly short space of time. "As a
+rule," says Bancroft, "within fifteen minutes from the time the bell
+was tapped, on any occasion, seven-tenths of the entire Vigilante
+forces would be in their places armed ready for battle."
+
+Another corps, not as heroic, but quite as necessary, it was found
+advisable to appoint. The sacking of which Fort Gunnybags was made was
+of very coarse texture. When dry, the sand filling tended to run out!
+Therefore, those bags had to be kept constantly wet, and somebody had
+to do it. Enemies sneeringly remarked that Fort Gunnybags consumed much
+more water without than within; but this joke lost its point when it
+became known that the committee, decades in advance of its period, had
+prohibited alcohol absolutely!
+
+Realizing from the two lamentable fiascos just recounted that little
+could be accomplished by private initiative, the upholders of the law
+turned their attention to Sacramento. Here they had every reason to
+hope for success. No matter how well organized the Vigilantes might be,
+or how thoroughly they carried the sympathies of the local public,
+there could be no doubt that they were acting in defiance of the law,
+were, in fact, no better than rebels. It was not only within the power,
+it was the duty of the governor of the State to declare the city in a
+condition of insurrection.
+
+This being accomplished, it followed logically that the State troops
+must put down the insurrection; and if they failed, there was still the
+immense power of the republic to call upon. After all, when you look at
+it that way, this handful of disturbers amounted to very little.
+
+The first step was to win over the governor. Without him the next step
+could not be taken. Accordingly all the big guns of San Francisco took
+the _Senator_ for Sacramento. There they met Terry, Volney Howard, and
+others of the same ilk. No governor of Johnson's sort could long
+withstand such pressure. He promised to issue the proclamation of
+insurrection as soon as it was "legally proved" that the committee had
+acted outside the law. The mere fact that it had already hanged two men
+and deported a great number of others meant nothing. That, apparently,
+was not legal proof.
+
+In order that all things should be legal, then, Terry issued a writ of
+_habeas corpus_ for the body of one William Mulligan, and gave it into
+the hands of Deputy-sheriff Harrison for service on the committee.
+Nobody expected the latter to deliver over Mulligan.
+
+"But they'll deny the writ," said Terry, "and that will constitute a
+legal defiance of the State. The governor will then be legally
+justified in issuing his proclamation, and ordering out the State
+troops to enforce the writ."
+
+If the State troops proved inadequate, the plan was then to call on the
+United States--as locally represented by General Wool and Captain David
+Farragut--for assistance. With this armed backing three times the
+Vigilante force could be quickly subdued. As it was all legal, it could
+not fail.
+
+Harrison took the writ of _habeas corpus_ and proceeded to San
+Francisco. He presented himself at headquarters, produced his writ, and
+had himself announced to the Executive Committee then in session.
+
+"Tell him to go to hell!" growled someone.
+
+But a half-dozen members saw through the ruse, and interposed vigorous
+objections.
+
+"I move," said Dempster solemnly, "that our police be permitted to
+remove all prisoners for a few hours."
+
+This was carried, and put into immediate effect. Deputy Harrison was
+then politely received, his writ fully acknowledged, and he was allowed
+to search the premises. Of course he found nothing, and departed much
+crestfallen. The scheme had failed. The committee had in no way denied
+his authority or his writ. Harrison was no fool. He saw clearly what he
+had been expected to do. On his way back to Sacramento he did some
+thinking. To Terry he unblushingly returned the writ endorsed:
+"Prevented from service by armed men." For the sake of the cause
+Harrison had lied!
+
+Johnson immediately issued his proclamation. The leaders turned with
+confidence to the Federal authorities for assistance. To their blank
+dismay General Wool refused to furnish arms. His position was that he
+had no authority to do so without orders from Washington. The
+sympathies of this doughty old soldier were not with this attempt.
+Colonel Baker and Volney Howard waited on him, and after considerable
+conversation made the mistake of threatening to report him to
+Washington for refusing to uphold the law.
+
+"I think, gentlemen," flashed back the veteran, "I know my duty, and in
+its performance dread no responsibility."
+
+So saying he bowed them from the room. Farragut equally could not
+clearly see why he should train the guns of his ship on the city. With
+this fiasco the opposition for the moment died. The Executive Committee
+went on patiently working down through its black list. It announced
+that after June 24th no new cases would be taken, A few days later it
+proclaimed an "adjournment parade" on July 5th. It considered its work
+done. The city had become safe.
+
+
+
+
+LXVII
+
+
+But this peaceful outcome did not suit the aristocratic wing of the Law
+and Order party in the least. The haughty, supremely individualistic,
+bold, forceful, often charming coterie of fire-eaters had, in their
+opinion, been insulted, and they wanted reprisal, punishment, blood.
+Terry, Baker, Bennett, Miles, Webb, Nugent, Blatchford, Rowlee,
+Caldwell, Broderick, Ware, Volney Howard, Black--to mention only a
+few--chafed intolerably. Such men were accustomed to have their own
+way, to cherish an ultra-sensitive "honour," to be looked up to; had
+come to consider themselves as especially privileged, to look upon
+themselves as direct representatives of the only proper government and
+administration of law. This revolt of the "lower classes," the "smug,
+psalm-singing Yankees," the "shopkeepers," was intolerable impudence.
+Because of a series of accidents, proper resentment of such impudence,
+due punishment of such denial of the law had been postponed. It was
+not, therefore, abrogated.
+
+When, therefore, the committee announced July 5th as a definite date
+for disbanding, the lawful authorities and their upholders, blinded by
+their passions, were distinctly disappointed. Where the common citizen
+perceived only the welcome end of a necessary job well done, they saw
+slipping away the last chance for a clash of arms that should teach
+these rebels their place. It was all very well to talk of arresting the
+ringleaders and bringing them to justice. In the present lamentable
+demoralization of the courts it might not work; and even if it did
+work, the punishment of ringleaders was small satisfaction as compared
+to triumphant vindication in pitched battle.
+
+Sherman had resigned command of the military in disgust when he found
+that General Wool and Captain Farragut had no intention of supplying
+him Federal arms, thus closing--save for later inaccurate writing in
+his "Memoirs"--an unfortunate phase of his career. In his stead had
+been chosen General Volney Howard. Howard was a rather fat, very
+pompous, wholly conceited bombastes furioso with apparently remarkable
+lack of judgment or grasp of a situation. In the committee's action
+looking toward adjournment he actually thought he saw a sign of
+weakening!
+
+"Now is the moment for us to show our power!" he said.
+
+In this he gained the zealous support of Judge Terry and Major
+Marmaduke Miles, two others with more zeal than discretion. These three
+managed to persuade Governor Johnson to order a parade of State troops
+in the streets of San Francisco. Their argument was that such a
+parade--of legally organized forces--would overawe the citizens; their
+secret hope, however, was that such a show would provoke the desired
+conflict. This hope they shared with Howard, after the governor's order
+had been obtained. Howard's vanity and inclinations jumped together. He
+consented. Altogether, it was a very pretty little plot.
+
+By now the Law and Order forces had become numerically formidable. The
+bobtail and rag-tag, ejected either by force or by fright, flocked to
+the colours. A certain proportion of the militia remained in the ranks,
+though a majority had resigned. A large contingent of reckless, wild
+young men, without a care or a tie in the world, with no interest in
+the rights of the case, or, indeed, in themselves, avid only for
+adventure, offered themselves as soon as the prospects for a real fight
+became good. And there were always the five hundred discomfited Texans.
+
+Nor were arms now lacking. Contrary to all expectation, the committee
+had scrupulously refrained from meddling with the State armouries. All
+militia muskets were available. In addition the State had now the right
+to a certain quota of Federal arms, stored in the arsenal at Benicia.
+These could be requisitioned.
+
+
+At this point in the planning weasly little Jimmy Ware had a bright
+idea.
+
+"Look here!" he cried, "how many of those Benicia muskets are there?"
+
+"About a hundred and fifty stand, sir," Howard told him.
+
+"Now they can't help us a whole lot," propounded Ware. "They are too
+few. But why can't we use them for bait, to get those people on the
+wrong side of the fence?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Terry, who knew Ware intimately.
+
+"Suppose they are shipped from Benicia to the armouries in the city;
+they are legally Federal property until they are delivered, aren't
+they?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, if the Stranglers should happen to seize them while they're
+still Federal property, they've committed a definite offence against
+the United States, haven't they?"
+
+"What do we care about that now?" asked Major Marmaduke Miles, to whom
+this seemed irrelevant.
+
+But Judge Terry's legal mind was struck with the beauty and simplicity
+of this ruse.
+
+"Hold on!" he cried. "If we ship them in a boat, the seizure will be
+piracy. If they intercept those arms, they're pirates, and we can
+legally call on the Federal forces--_and they'll be compelled to
+respond, egad!_"
+
+"They're pretty smart; suppose they smell a rat?" asked Miles
+doubtfully.
+
+"Then we'll have the muskets where we want them, anyway. It's worth
+trying," replied Ware.
+
+"I know just the man," put in Terry. "I'll send for him."
+
+Shortly appeared a saturnine, lank, bibulous individual known as Rube
+Maloney. To him Terry explained. He was to charter a sloop, take the
+muskets aboard--and get caught.
+
+"No resistance, mind you!" warned Terry.
+
+"Trust me for that," grinned Rube. "I ain't anxious for no punctured
+skin, nor yit a stretched neck."
+
+"Pick your men carefully."
+
+"I'll take Jack Phillips and Jim McNab," said Rube, after a moment's
+thought, "and possibly a few refreshments?" he suggested.
+
+Terry reached into his pocket.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said he. "Treat yourself well."
+
+There remained only to see that the accurate details should get to the
+Committee of Vigilance, but in such a manner as to avoid suspicion that
+the information had been "planted."
+
+"Is there anybody we can trust on their rolls?" asked Terry.
+
+But it was reluctantly conceded that the Vigilantes had pretty well
+cleaned out the doubtful ones. Here again, the resourceful Jimmy Ware
+came to the rescue.
+
+"I know your man--Morrell. He'll get it to them. As far as anybody
+knows, he hasn't taken sides at all."
+
+"Will you see him?" asked Terry.
+
+"I'll see him," promised Jimmy Ware.
+
+
+
+
+LXVIII
+
+
+By this time the Vigilante organization had pretty well succeeded in
+eliminating the few Law and Order sympathizers who had been bold enough
+to attempt to play the part of spy by signing the rolls. These had not
+been many, and their warning had been sufficient. But Morrell had, in a
+measure, escaped distrust even if he had not gained confidence. He had
+had the sense not to join the organization; and his attitude of the
+slightly supercilious, veiledly contemptuous Britisher, scorning all
+things about him, was sufficient guarantee of his neutrality. This
+breed was then very common. He left his conference with Jimmy Ware
+thoroughly instructed, quite acquiescent, but revolving matters in his
+own mind to see if somehow he could not turn them to his advantage. For
+Morrell was, as always, in need of money. In addition, he had a
+personal score to settle with Keith for, although he had apparently
+forgotten their last interview regarding "loans," the memory rankled.
+And Morrell had not forgotten that before all this Vigilante business
+broke he had been made a good offer by Cora's counsel to get Keith out
+of the way. Cora was now very dead, to be sure; but on sounding Jimmy
+Ware, Morrell learned that Keith's removal would still be pleasant to
+the powers that pay.
+
+If he could work these things all in together--Cogitating absorbedly,
+he glanced up to see Ben Sansome sauntering down the street, his
+malacca cane at the proper angle, his cylindrical hat resting lightly
+on his sleek locks, his whole person spick with the indescribably
+complete appointment of the dandy. Sansome was mixed up with the
+Keiths--perhaps he could be used--On impulse Morrell hailed him
+genially, and invited him to take a drink. The exquisite brightened,
+and perceptibly hastened his step. Morrell's rather ultra-Anglicism
+always fascinated him. They turned in at the El Dorado, and there
+seated themselves at the most remote of the small tables.
+
+"Well," said Morrell cheerfully, after preliminary small talk had been
+disposed of, "how goes the fair Nancy?"
+
+Sansome's effeminately handsome face darkened. Things had in reality
+gone very badly with the fair Nancy. Her revulsion against Sansome at
+the time of the capture of the jail had been complete; and as is the
+case with real revulsions, she had not attempted to conceal it.
+Sansome's careful structure, which had gained so lofty an elevation,
+had collapsed like the proverbial house of cards. His vanity had been
+cruelly rasped. And what had been more or less merely a dilettante's
+attraction had been thereby changed into a thwarted passion.
+
+"Damn the fair Nancy!" he cried, in answer to Morrell's question.
+
+Morrell's eyes narrowed, and he motioned quietly to the waiting black
+to replenish the glasses.
+
+"With all my heart, damn her!" said he. "I agree with you; she's a
+snippy, cold little piece. Not my style at all. Not worth the serious
+attention of a man like yourself. Who is it now, you sly dog?"
+
+Sansome sipped at his drink; sighed sentimentally.
+
+"Cold--yes--but if the right man could awaken her--" he murmured.
+
+"Look here, Sansome, do you want that woman?"
+
+Sansome looked at his companion haughtily; his eye fell; he drew
+circles with the bottom of his glass.
+
+"By gad!" he cried with a sudden queer burst of fire; "I've got to have
+her!"
+
+And then he turned slowly red, actually started to wriggle, concealed
+his embarrassment under cover of his cigar.
+
+"H'm," observed Morrell speculatively, without looking across at
+Sansome. "Tell me, Ben, does she still care for her husband?"
+
+"No; that I'll swear!" replied Sansome eagerly.
+
+"If you're sure of that one essential little fact, and you really want
+her, why don't you take her?"
+
+"Damn it, ain't I telling you? She won't see me."
+
+"Tell me about it," urged Morrell, settling back, and again motioning
+for fresh drinks.
+
+Sansome, whose soul was ripe for sympathy, needed little more urging.
+He poured out his tale, sometimes rushingly and passionately, again, as
+his submerged but still conventional self-consciousness straggled to
+the surface, with shamefaced bravado. "By Gad!" he finished. "You know,
+I feel like a raw schoolboy, talkin' like this!"
+
+Morrell leaned forward, his reserve of manner laid aside, his whole
+being radiating sympathetic charm.
+
+"My dear chap, don't," he begged, laying his hand on Sansome's forearm.
+"A genuine passion is the most glorious thing on earth even in callow
+youth! But when we old men of the world--" The pause was eloquent.
+"She's a headstrong filly," he went on in a more matter-of-fact tone,
+after a moment, "takes a bit of handling. You'll pardon me, old chap,
+if I suggest that you've gone about things a bit wrong."
+
+"How is that?" asked Sansome. Under the influence of drinks,
+confession, and sympathy, he was in a glow of fellow-feeling.
+
+"Believe me, I know women and horses! You've ridden this one too much
+on the snaffle. Try the curb. That high-spirited sort takes a bit of
+handling. They like to feel themselves dominated. You've been too
+gentle, too refined. She's gentle and refined for two. What she wants
+is the brute--'Rape of the Sabines' principle. Savage her a bit, and
+she'll come to heel like a dog. Not at once, perhaps. Give her a week."
+
+"That's all very well," objected Sansome, whose eyes were shining, "but
+how about that week? She'll run to that beast of a husband with her
+story--"
+
+"And be sorry for it afterward--"
+
+"Too late."
+
+Morrell appeared to think.
+
+"There's something in that. But suppose we arranged to get the husband
+out of the way, where she couldn't run to him at once--" he suggested.
+
+They had more drinks. At first Morrell was only sardonically amused;
+but as his imagination got to working and the creative power awoke, his
+interest became more genuine. It was all too wildly improbable for
+words--and yet, was anything improbable in this impossible place? At
+least it was amusing, the whole thing was amusing--this super-refined
+exquisite awakened, to an emotion so genuine that what judgment he had
+was now obscured by the eagerness of his passion; the situation
+apparently so easily malleable; the beautiful safety of it all for
+himself. And it did not really matter if the whole fantastic plot
+failed!
+
+"I tell you, no," he broke his thoughts to reply to some ill-considered
+suggestion, "The good old simple methods are the best--they're all laid
+out for us by the Drury Lane melodramas. You leave it to me to get rid
+of him. Then we'll send the usual message to her that he is lying
+wounded somewhere--say at Jake's road house--"
+
+"Won't that get her to thinking too much of him?" interrupted Sansome
+anxiously.
+
+Morrell, momentarily taken aback, gained time for a reply by pouring
+Sansome another drink, "He's more sense left than I thought," he said
+to himself; and aloud: "All you want is to get her out to Jake's.
+She'll go simply as a matter of wifely duty, and all that. Don't worry.
+Once she's there, it's your affair; and unless I mistake my man, I
+believe you'll know how to manage the situation"--he winked
+slyly--"she's really mad about you, but, like most women, she's hemmed
+in by convention. Boldly break through the convention, and she'll come
+around."
+
+Sansome was plainly fascinated by the idea, but in a trepidation of
+doubt, nevertheless.
+
+"But suppose she doesn't come around?" he objected vaguely.
+
+Morrell threw aside his cigarette and arose with an air of decision.
+
+"I thought you were so crazy mad about her?" he said in tones that cut.
+"What are you wasting my time for?"
+
+"No, no! Hold on!" cried Sansome, at once all fire again. "I'll do
+it--hold on!"
+
+"As a matter of fact," observed Morrell, reseating himself, and
+speaking as though there had been no interruption, "I imagine you have
+little to fear from that."
+
+He went into the street a little later, his vision somewhat blurred,
+but his mind clear. Sansome, by now very pot-valiant, swaggered
+alongside.
+
+"By the way, Ben," said Morrell suddenly, "I hope you go armed--these
+are bad times."
+
+"I have always carried a derringer--and I can use it, too!" boasted
+Sansome, swinging his cane.
+
+Morrell, left alone, stood on the corner for some time diligently
+engaged in getting control of himself. He laughed a little.
+
+"Regular bally melodrama, conspiracy and all, right off the
+blood-and-thunder stage," said he. "Wonder if it works in real life?
+We'll see."
+
+After his head had cleared, he set to work methodically to find Keith,
+but when he finally met that individual it was most casually. Morrell
+was apparently in a hurry, but as he saw Keith he appeared to hesitate,
+then, making up his mind, he approached the young lawyer.
+
+"Look here, Keith, a word with you," he said. "I have stumbled on some
+information which may be important. I was on my way to the committee
+with it, but I'm in a hurry. The governor is shipping arms into the
+city to-morrow night from Benicia, by a small sloop."
+
+"Are you sure of this?" asked Keith.
+
+"Certain."
+
+"Where did you get the information?"
+
+"That I cannot tell you."
+
+Keith still hesitated; Morrell turned on his heel.
+
+"Well, I've told you. You can do as you please, but you'd better let
+the committee decide whether to take the tip or not." He walked away
+without once looking back, certain that Keith would end by reporting
+the information.
+
+"Chances are he'll go with the capturing party," ran the trend of his
+thoughts, "and so he'll be out of reach of this little abduction. But I
+don't care much. If he follows them out to Jake's by any chance,
+Sansome will shoot him--or he'll shoot Sansome. Doesn't matter which.
+Shootin's none too healthy these days _for either side!_ Oh, Lord, most
+amusin'!"
+
+He thought a while, then turned up the hill toward his own house. A new
+refinement of the plot had occurred to the artist's soul too much drink
+had released in him.
+
+Mrs. Morrell was vastly surprised to see him. She was clad in a
+formless pink silk wrapper, was reclining on a sofa, and was settling
+down to relaxation of mind and body by means of French novels and
+cigarettes.
+
+"Well, what are you doing here at this time of day?" was her greeting.
+
+"Came to bask in the light of your smiles, my dear," he replied with
+elephantine irony.
+
+"Nonsense!" she rejoined sharply, "You've been drinking again!"
+
+"To be sure; but not enough to hurt." His manner suddenly became
+businesslike, "Look here," he asked her, "are you game to make a tidy
+bit of money?"
+
+"Always!" she replied promptly, also becoming businesslike.
+
+He explained in detail. She listened in silence at first with a slight
+smile of contempt on her lips. As he progressed, however, the smile
+faded.
+
+"Where do I come in?" she asked finally.
+
+"You must be there when the message comes to her. She might not go out
+to Jake's alone--probably wouldn't. I don't know her well enough to
+judge. Hurry her into it."
+
+"I see." She laughed suddenly. "Lord, she'll be surprised when I call
+on her! Take some doing, that!" She thought a few moments. "My
+appearance will connect us with it. Won't do."
+
+"If the thing goes through we won't be here," he pointed out. "If it
+doesn't go through all right, we'll arrange a little comedy. Have you
+bound and gagged--before her eyes--or something like that."
+
+"Thanks," she replied to this.
+
+Morrell was not entirely open. He did not tell her that money or no
+money, plot or no plot, he had resolved to flee the city, at least for
+a time. Investigations were getting too close to some of his past
+activities. He did not offer in words what he nevertheless knew to be
+the most potent of his arguments--namely, the implacable hate Mrs.
+Morrell bore Keith. Morrell's knowledge of this hate was accurate,
+though his analysis of its cause was faulty. He thought his wife to be
+Keith's discarded mistress, and did not greatly care. Nor did he
+mention the possibility which, however, Mrs. Morrell now voiced.
+
+"Suppose Keith follows them out to Jake's?" she suggested.
+
+"One of them will kill, and the Stranglers will hang the other," he
+said briefly.
+
+She looked up.
+
+"I don't care for that!"
+
+"In that event, you will not be present. Your job will be to duck out."
+He paused, then went on slowly: "Would you grieve at the demise of
+either--or all three?"
+
+Her face hardened.
+
+"But," he went on slowly, "the chances of it are very remote. If there
+is any killing, it will come later. Keith will be kept out of the way."
+
+"And after?"
+
+"You hint of an assignation. I will arrange for witnesses."
+
+"Where does the money come in?" she demanded. Morrell floundered for a
+moment. He had lost sight of the money.
+
+"It comes from certain parties who want Keith put out of the way," he
+said.
+
+"And suppose Keith is not put out of the way?" she began, her facile
+mind pouncing on the weakness of this statement. "Never mind," she
+interrupted herself. "I'll do it!" Her face had hardened again, "Can
+you depend on Sansome to go through with it?"
+
+"Only if he's fairly drunk."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I'll attend to that. That is my job. You may not see me to-morrow; but
+go in the evening to call on her."
+
+"It looks absolutely preposterous," she said at last, "but it may work.
+And, if any part of it works, that'll be enough."
+
+"Yes," said he.
+
+They had both forgotten the money.
+
+
+
+
+LXIX
+
+
+As Morrell had surmised, Keith decided to pass on the news for what it
+was worth. The committee believed it, and was filled with consternation
+at the incredible folly of the projected show of armed force.
+
+"This is not peace, but war," said Coleman, "which we are trying to
+avert!"
+
+The Executive Committee went into immediate session. It was now evident
+that the disbanding would have to be indefinitely postponed. An
+extraordinary program to meet the emergency was discussed piecemeal.
+One of its details had to do with the shipment of arms from Benicia.
+The committee here fell neatly into the trap prepared for it. In all
+probability no one clearly realized the legal status of the muskets,
+but all supposed them already to belong to the State that was
+threatening to use them. Charles Doane, instructed to take the steps
+necessary to their capture, called to him the chief of the harbour
+police.
+
+"Have you a small vessel ready for immediate service?" he asked this
+man.
+
+"Yes, a sloop, at the foot of this street."
+
+"Be ready to sail in half an hour."
+
+Doane then turned the job over to a trustworthy, quick-witted man named
+John Durkee. The latter selected twelve to assist him, among whom was
+Keith, at the latter's especial request. Morrell, loitering near, saw
+this band depart for the water front, and followed them far enough to
+watch them embark, to witness the hoisting of the sloop's sails, and to
+see the craft heel to the evening breeze and slip away around the
+point. All things were going well. The committee suspected nothing of
+the plot to fasten the crime of piracy on it; Keith was out of the way.
+Morrell turned on his heel and walked rapidly to his rendezvous with
+Sansome.
+
+Durkee and his sloop beat for some hours against wind and tide; but
+finally, so strong were both, he was forced to anchor in San Pablo Bay
+until conditions had somewhat modified. Finally, he was able to get
+under way again, A number of craft were sailing about, and one by one
+these were overhauled, commanded to lay to, and boarded in true
+piratical style. It was fun for everybody. The breeze blew in strongly
+from the Golden Gate, the waves chopped and danced merrily, the little
+sloop dipped her rail and flew along at a speed that justified her
+reputation as a racer, gulls followed curiously. But there were no
+practical results. Every sailing craft they overhauled proved innocent,
+and either indignant or sarcastic. The sun dipped, and the short
+twilight of this latitude was almost immediately succeeded by a
+brilliant night. Slowly the breeze died, until the little sloop could
+just crawl along. It grew chilly, and there was no food aboard. A less
+persistent man than John Durkee would have felt justified in giving it
+up and heading for home; but John had been instructed to cruise until
+he captured the arms; and he profanely announced his intention of so
+doing.
+
+In this he was more faithful to his superiors than the notorious Rube
+Maloney to his employers. It was to the interest of the Law and Order
+party that Rube and his precious crew should be promptly and easily
+captured. They had been instructed to carry boldly and flagrantly, in
+full daylight, down the middle of the bay. But Terry's permission, to
+lay in "refreshments" at cost of the conspirators had been liberally
+interpreted. By six o'clock Rube had just sense enough left to drop
+anchor off Pueblo Point. There the three jolly mariners proceeded to
+celebrate; and there they would probably have lain undiscovered had
+less of a bulldog than Durkee been sent after them.
+
+As it was, midnight had passed before Durkee's keen eyes caught the
+loom of some object in the black mist close under the point. Quietly he
+eased off the sheet and bore down on it. As soon as he ascertained
+definitely that the object was indeed a boat, he ran alongside. The
+twelve men boarded with a rush: they found themselves in possession of
+an empty deck. From the hatch came the reek of alcohol and the sound of
+hearty snoring. The capture was made.
+
+In a half hour the transfer of the muskets and the three prisoners was
+accomplished. The latter offered no resistance, but seemed cross at
+being awakened. Leaving the vessel anchored off the point, the little
+sloop stood away again for San Francisco, reaching the California
+Street wharf shortly after daylight. Here she was moored, and one of
+the crew was dispatched to the committee for further instructions and
+grub. He returned after an hour, but was preceded somewhat by the grub.
+
+"They say to deliver the muskets at headquarters," he reported, "but to
+turn the prisoners loose."
+
+"Turn them loose!" cried Durkee, astonished.
+
+"That's what they said," repeated the messenger. "And here's written
+orders," and he displayed a paper signed by the well-known "33,
+Secretary," and bearing the Vigilante seal of the open eye.
+
+"All right," acquiesced Durkee. "Now, you mangy hounds, you've got just
+about twenty-eight seconds to make yourselves as scarce as your
+virtues. Scat!"
+
+Rube and his two companions had several of the twenty-eight seconds to
+spare; but once they had lost sight of their captors, they moderated
+their pace. They had been much depressed, but now they cheered up and
+swaggered. A few drinks restored them to normal, and they were able to
+put a good face on the report they now made to their employers, all of
+whom, including Terry, had gathered thus early to receive them. After
+all, things had gone well: they had been actually captured, which was
+the essential thing, and it did not seem necessary to go into
+extraneous details.
+
+"Good!" cried Terry, who had come down from Sacramento personally to
+superintend the working out of this latest ruse.
+
+
+He was illegally absent from his court, meddling illegally with matters
+not in his jurisdiction. "Now we must get a warrant for piracy into the
+hands of the United States Marshal. Send him alone, with no deputies.
+When he makes his deposition of resistance, then we shall see!"
+
+The marshal found Durkee still at the wharf, seated on an upturned cask.
+
+"I have this warrant for your arrest!" he proclaimed in a voice
+purposely loud.
+
+"Yes? Let's see it," rejoined Durkee, lazily reaching out his hand.
+
+He read the document through leisurely. His features betrayed no hint
+of his thoughts, but nevertheless his brain was very active. He read
+that he was accused of piracy against the might and majesty of the
+United States Government; and as his eyes slowly followed the involved
+and redundant legal phraseology, he reviewed the situation. The nature,
+of the trap became to him, partly evident. There was no doubt that
+technically he was a pirate, if these arms--as it seemed--belonged to
+the Government and not to the State. The punishment of piracy was
+death. Without appreciation of the fact, the committee had made him
+liable to the death penalty. And he had no doubt that the Federal
+Courts of California, as then constituted, would visit that penalty on
+him. He raised his head and looked about him. Within call were lounging
+a dozen resolute men belonging to the Committee of Vigilance. He had
+but to raise his voice to bring them to his assistance. Once inside
+Fort Gunnybags he knew that the committee would stand behind him to the
+last man.
+
+But John Durkee had imagination as well as bulldog persistency. His
+mind flashed ahead into the future, envisaging the remoter
+consequences. He saw the majesty of the law's forces invoked to back
+this warrant which the tremendous power of the disciplined Vigilantes
+would repulse; he saw reinforcements, summoned. What reinforcements? A
+smile flitted across his lips, and he glanced up at the warship _John
+Adams_ riding at anchor outside, her guns, their tampons in place,
+staring blackly at the city. He saw the whole plot.
+
+"That's all right," he told the waiting marshal, folding the warrant
+and returning it to him. "Put your paper in your pocket. I'll go with
+you."
+
+By this quietly courageous and intelligent deed John Durkee completely
+frustrated the fourth and most dangerous effort of the Law and Order
+party. There was no legal excuse for calling on Federal forces to take
+one man--who peaceably surrendered!
+
+Undoubtedly, had not matters taken the decided and critical turn soon
+to be detailed, Durkee would have been immediately brought to trial,
+and perhaps executed. As it was, even the most rabid of the Law and
+Order party agreed it was inexpedient to press matters. The case was
+postponed again and again, and did not come to trial until several
+months, by which time the Vigilantes had practically finished their
+work. The law finally saved its face by charging the jury that "if they
+believed the prisoners took the arms with the intention of
+appropriating them to their own use and permanently depriving the owner
+of them, then they were guilty. But if they took them only for the
+purpose of preventing their being used against themselves and their
+associates, then they were not guilty." Under which hair-splitting and
+convenient interpretation the "pirates" went free, and everybody was
+satisfied!
+
+
+
+
+LXX
+
+
+After leaving the office where they had made their report to their
+employers, Rube Maloney and his two friends visited all the saloons.
+There they found sympathetic and admiring audiences. They reviled the
+committee collectively and singly; bragged that they would shoot
+Coleman, Truett, Durkee, and some others at sight; flourished weapons,
+and otherwise became so publicly and noisily obstreperous that the
+committee decided they needed a lesson. Accordingly they instructed
+Sterling Hopkins, with four others, to rearrest the lot and bring them
+in. Hopkins was a bulldog, pertinacious, rough, a faithful creature.
+
+News of these orders ran ahead of their performance. Rube and his
+satellites dropped everything and fled to their masters like threatened
+dogs. Their masters, who included Terry, Bowie, Major Marmaduke Miles,
+and a few others, happened to be discussing the situation in the office
+of Richard Ashe, a Texan, and an active member of "the chivalry." The
+three redoubtables burst in on this gathering, wild-eyed, scared, with,
+the statement that a thousand stranglers were at their heels.
+
+"Better hide 'em," suggested Bowie.
+
+But hot-headed Terry, seconded by equally hot-headed Ashe, would have
+none of this.
+
+"By gad, let them try it!" cried the judge. "I've been aching for this
+chance!"
+
+Therefore when Hopkins, having left his small _posse_ at the foot of
+the stairs, knocked and entered, he was faced by the muzzles of half a
+dozen pistols, and profanely told to get out of there. He was no fool,
+so he obeyed. If Terry had possessed the sense of a rooster, or a
+single quality of leadership, he would have seen that this was not the
+moment to precipitate a crisis. The forces of his own party were
+neither armed nor ready. But here, as in all other important actions of
+his career, he was governed by the haughty and headstrong passions of
+the moment--as when later he justified himself in attempting to shoot
+down an old and unarmed man. Hopkins left his men at the foot of the
+stairs, borrowed a horse from Dr. Beverly Cole, who was passing, and
+galloped to headquarters. There he was instructed to return, to keep
+watch, that reinforcements would follow. He arrived at the building in
+which Ashe's office was located, in time to see Maloney, Terry, Ashe,
+McNabb, Bowie, and Rowe all armed with shotguns, just turning the far
+corner. He dismounted and called on his men to follow. The little
+_posse_ dogged the judge's party for some distance. For a time no
+attention was paid to them, but as they pressed closer Terry, Ashe, and
+Maloney whirled and presented their shotguns. The movement was probably
+intended only as a threat; but Hopkins, always bold to the point of
+rashness, made a sudden rush at Maloney. Judge Terry thrust his gun at
+the Vigilante officer who seized it by the barrel. At the same instant
+Ashe pressed the muzzle of his weapon against one Bovee's breast, but
+hesitated to pull the trigger. It was getting to be unhealthy to shoot
+men in the open street.
+
+"Are you a friend?" he faltered.
+
+"Yes," replied Bovee, and by a rapid motion struck the barrel aside.
+
+Another of the Vigilantes named Barry covered Rowe with a pistol.
+Rowe's "chivalry" oozed. He dropped his gun and fled toward the
+armoury. The others struggled for possession of weapons, but nobody
+fired. Suddenly Terry whipped out a knife and plunged it into Hopkins's
+neck. Hopkins relaxed his hold on Terry's shotgun and staggered back.
+
+"I am stabbed! Take them, Vigilantes!" he cried.
+
+He sank to the pavement. Terry and his friends dropped everything and
+ran toward the armoury. Of the Vigilante _posse_ only Bovee and Barry
+remained, but these two pursued the fleeing Law and Order men to the
+very portals of the armoury itself. When the door was slammed in their
+faces, they took up their stand outside, they two holding within
+several hundred men! At the end of ten minutes a pompous, portly
+individual came up under full sail, cast a detached and haughty glance
+at the two quiet men lounging unwarrantedly in his path, and attempted
+to pass inside.
+
+"You cannot enter here," said Bovee grimly, as they barred his way.
+
+The pompous man turned purple.
+
+"Do you know who I am?" he demanded.
+
+"I don't give a damn who you are," replied Bovee, still quietly.
+
+"I am Major-General Volney E. Howard!"
+
+"You cannot enter here," repeated Bovee, and this time he said it in a
+tone of voice that sent the major-general scurrying away.
+
+After a short interval another man dashed up very much in a hurry.
+Mistaking Bovee and Barry for sentinels, he cried as he ran up:
+
+"I am a lieutenant in Calhoun Bennett's company, and I have been sent
+here to--"
+
+"I am a member of the Committee of Vigilance," interrupted Barry, "and
+you cannot enter."
+
+"What!" cried the officer, in astonishment. "Have the Vigilance
+Committee possession of this building?"
+
+"They have," was the reply of the dauntless two.
+
+The lieutenant rolled up his eyes and darted away faster than he had
+come. A few moments later, doubtless to the vast relief of the "outside
+garrison" of the armoury within which five or six hundred men were held
+close by this magnificent bluff, the great Vigilante bell boomed out:
+_one, two, three_, rest; then _one, two, three_, rest; and repeat.
+
+Immediately the streets were alive with men. Merchants left their
+customers, clerks their books, mechanics their tools. Dray-men stripped
+their horses of harness, abandoned their wagons where they stood, and
+rode away to their cavalry. Clancey Dempster's office was only four
+blocks from headquarters. At the first stroke of the bell he leaped
+from his desk, ran down the stairs, and jumped into his buggy. Yet he
+could drive only three of the four blocks, so dense already was the
+crowd. He abandoned his rig in the middle of the street and forced his
+way through afoot. Two days later he recovered his rig. In the building
+he found the companies, silently, without confusion, falling into line.
+
+"All right!" he called encouragingly. "Keep cool! Take your time about
+it!"
+
+"Ah, Mr. Dempster," they replied, "we've waited long! This is the clean
+sweep!"
+
+James Olney was lying in bed with a badly sprained ankle when the alarm
+bell began to toll. He commandeered one boot from a fellow-boarder with
+extremely large feet, and hobbled to the street. There he seized by
+force of arms the passing delivery wagon of a kerosene dealer, climbed
+to the seat, and lashed the astonished horse to a run. San Francisco
+streets ran to chuck holes and ruts in those days, and the vehicle
+lurched and banged with a grand rattle and scatteration of tins and
+measures. The terrified driver at last mustered courage to protest.
+
+"You are spilling my kerosene!" he wailed.
+
+"Damn your kerosene, sir!" bellowed the general; then relenting: "I
+will pay you for your kerosene!"
+
+Up to headquarters he sailed full tilt, and how he got through the
+crowd without committing manslaughter no one tells. There he was
+greeted by wild cheering, and was at once lifted bodily to the back of
+a white horse, the conspicuous colour of which made it an excellent
+rallying point.
+
+Within an incredibly brief space of time they were off for the armoury;
+the military companies marching like veterans; the artillery rumbling
+over the rude pavements; the cavalry jogging along to cover the rear. A
+huge roaring mob accompanied them, followed them, raced up the parallel
+streets to arrive before the armoury at the same moment as the first
+files.
+
+The armoury square was found to be deserted except for the intrepid
+Barry and Bovee, who still marched back and forth before the closed
+door. No one had entered or left the building.
+
+Inside the armoury the first spirit of bravado and
+fight-to-the-last-ditch had died to a sullen stubbornness. Nobody had
+much, to say. Terry was very contrite as well he might be. A judge of
+the Supreme Court, who had no business being in San Francisco at all,
+sworn to uphold the law, had stepped out from his jurisdiction to
+commit as lawless and idiotic a deed of passion as could have been
+imagined! Whatever chances the Law and Order party might have had,
+could they have mobilized their forces, were dissipated. Their troops
+were scattered in small units; their rank and file were heaven knew
+where; their enemies, fully organized, had been mustered by the alarm
+bell to full alertness and compactness. And Terry's was the hand that
+had struck that bell! For the only time in his recorded history David
+Terry's ungoverned spirit was humbled. Until he found that nothing
+immediate was going to happen to him, and while under the silent but
+scathing disapprobation of his companions, he actually talked of
+resigning! Parenthetically, the fit did not last long, and he soon
+reared, his haughty crest as high as ever. But now, listening to the
+roar of the mob outside, peeping at the grim thousands of armed men
+deploying before the armoury, he regretted his deed.
+
+"This is very unfortunate; very unfortunate!" he said, "But you shall
+not imperil your lives for me. It is I they want. I will surrender to
+them."
+
+Instead of the prompt expostulation he expected, a dead silence greeted
+these words.
+
+"There is nothing else to do," agreed Ashe at last.
+
+An officer was sent to negotiate.
+
+"We will deliver up the armoury if you will agree not to give us over
+to the mob," he told the committee.
+
+"We hold, and intend to hold, the mob under absolute control. We have
+nothing in common with mobs," was Coleman's reply.
+
+The doors were then thrown open, and a company  of the Vigilante troops
+marched in. Within ten minutes, the streets were cleared. The six
+hundred prisoners, surrounded by a solid body of infantry with cavalry
+on the flanks, were marched to headquarters. The city was jubilant.
+This, at last, was the clean sweep! Men went about with shining faces,
+slapping each other on the back. And Coleman, the wise general,
+realizing that compromises were useless, peace impossible, came to a
+decision. Shortly from headquarters the entire Vigilante forces moved
+in four divisions toward the cardinal points of the compass. From them
+small squads were from time to time detached and sent out to right or
+left. The main divisions surrounded the remaining four big armouries;
+the smaller squads combed the city house by house for arms. In the
+early morning the armouries capitulated. By sun-up every weapon in the
+city had been taken to Fort Gunnybags.
+
+
+
+
+LXXI
+
+
+Up to this time Nan Keith had undergone the experience of nine out of
+ten married women in early California: that is, she had been neglected.
+Neglect in some form or other was the common lot of the legally
+attached feminine. How could it logically be otherwise? In the
+turbulent, varied, restless, intensely interesting, deeply exciting
+life of the pioneer city only a poor-spirited, bloodless, nerveless man
+would have thought to settle down to domesticity. A quiet evening at
+home stands small chance, even in an old-established community, against
+a dog fight on the corner or a fire in the next block; and here were
+men fights instead, and a great, splendid, conflagration of desires,
+appetites, and passions, a grand clash of interests and wills that
+burned out men's lives in the space of a few years. It was a restless
+time, full of neglected women. This neglect varied in degree to be
+sure. Nan was lucky there. No other woman had thrust her way in, no
+other attraction lured Keith from her, as had happened to so many
+others. She possessed all his interest. But at present that interest
+seemed so attenuated, so remote!
+
+After her revulsion of feeing the afternoon the Vigilantes first rose
+in their might, she withdrew within her pride. Nan was no meek and
+humble spirit. But the scales had dropped from her eyes as to affairs
+about her. San Francisco suddenly became something besides a crude
+collection of buildings. For the first time she saw it as a living
+entity, strong in the throes of growth. She devoured eagerly all the
+newspapers, collected avidly all the rumours. Whenever possible, she
+discussed the state of affairs; but this was difficult, for nearly
+every one was strongly partisan for one side or another, and incapable
+of anything but excitement and vituperation. The Sherwoods were a great
+comfort to her here. While approving of the new movement, they
+nevertheless refused to become heated, and retained a spirit of humour.
+Sherwood was not a member of the Committee of Vigilance, but he had
+subscribed heavily--and openly--to its funds; he had assisted it with
+his counsels; and it was hinted that, sub-rosa, he had taken part in
+some of the more obscure but dangerous operations.
+
+"I am an elderly, peace-loving, respectable citizen," he told Nan, "and
+I stand unequivocably for law and order and for justice, for the
+orderly doing of things; and against violence, mob spirit, and
+high-handedness."
+
+"Why, John Sherwood!" cried Nan, up in arms at once. "I'd never have
+believed you could be on the side of Judge Terry and that stripe."
+
+"Oho!" cried Sherwood, delighted to have drawn her. "Now we have it!
+But what made you think I was on that side?"
+
+"Why--didn't you just say--"
+
+"Oh," said Sherwood comfortably, "I was using real meanings, not just
+word tags. In my opinion real law and order, orderly doing of things,
+_et cetera_, are all on the other side."
+
+"And the men--" cried Nan, aglow.
+
+"The men are of course all noble, self-sacrificing, patriotic,
+immaculate demigods who--" He broke off, chuckling at Nan's expression.
+"No, seriously, I think they are doing a fine work, and that they'll go
+down in history."
+
+"You're an old dear!" cried Nan, impulsively kissing his cheek.
+
+"Take care," he warned, "you're endangering my glasses and making my
+wife jealous."
+
+Nan drew back, a little ashamed at having shown her feelings; and
+rather astonished herself at their intensity.
+
+In the course of these conversations the pendulum with her began again
+to quiver at the descent. Through the calmly philosophical eye of the
+ex-gambler, John Sherwood, she partly envisaged the significance of
+what was happening--the struggling forth of real government from the
+sham. Her own troubles grew small by comparison. She began to feel
+nearer Keith in spirit than for some time past, to understand him
+better, even--though this was difficult--to get occasionally a glimpse
+of his relations toward herself. It was all very inchoate, instinctive,
+unformed; rather an instinct than a clear view. She became restless;
+for she had no outlet either for her own excitement or the communicated
+excitement of the times. It was difficult to wait, and yet wait she
+must. For what? She did not know!
+
+On the crucial June evening she sat by the lamp trying in vain to
+concentrate her attention on a book. The sound of the door bell made
+her jump. She heard Wing Sam's shuffle, and his cheerful greeting which
+all her training had been unable to eliminate. Wing Sam always met
+every caller with a smiling "Hello!" A moment later she arose in some
+surprise as Mrs. Morrell entered the room.
+
+Relations between the women had never been broken off, though the
+pretence of ordinary cordiality had long since been dropped. When Mrs.
+Morrell found it expedient to make this call, she spent several hours
+trying to invent a plausible excuse. She was unable to do so. Finally
+she gave it up in angry despair.
+
+"As long as it is not too bald, what difference does it make?" she said
+to herself cynically.
+
+And out of this desperation, and by no means from cleverness, she hit
+on the cleverest thing possible. Instead of coming to make a friendly
+call, she pretended to be on an errand of protest.
+
+"It's about your dog," she told Nan, "he's a dear good dog, and a great
+friend of ours. But cannot you shut him up nights? He's inclined to
+prowl around under my windows, and just the sound of him there keeps me
+awake. I know it's foolish; but I am so nervous these days--"
+
+"Why, of course," said Nan with real contrition. "I'd no idea--"
+
+Gringo was at the moment ingratiating himself with Wing Sam _in re_ one
+soup bone of no use to anybody but dogs. If he could have heard Mrs.
+Morrell's indictment, he would have been both grieved and surprised:
+Gringo never prowled anywhere. Like most rather meaty individuals, he
+was a very sound sleeper; and in the morning he often felt a little
+uneasy in his conscience as to the matter of stray trespassing cats or
+such small fry. He had every confidence that his instincts would warn
+him of really important things, like burglars. Still, the important
+things are not all of life, nor burglars all the duty of a dog.
+
+Having slandered the innocent Gringo, Mrs. Morrell stayed for a chat.
+Apparently she was always just on the point of departure, but never
+went. Nan, being, as she thought, in the wrong as to the worthy Gringo,
+tried her best to be polite, but was miserably conscious of being
+snippy.
+
+At the end of an hour the door bell rang again. If Nan had been
+watching, she might have seen Mrs. Morrell's body relax as though from
+a tension. After a moment Wing Sam shuffled into the room carrying a
+soiled folded paper.
+
+"Man he tell you lead this chop-chop," said he.
+
+Murmuring an apology, Nan opened the paper. With a cry she sprang to
+her feet. Her face had gone white.
+
+"What is it?" cried Mrs. Morrell in apparent anxiety.
+
+Without a word Nan extended the paper. Written in pencil were these
+words:
+
+ MADAM: Your husband has been injured in an attempt at arrest. He wants
+ me to tell you he is at Jake's Place hurt bad. With respects. JOHN Q.
+ ALDER.
+
+For an instant Mrs. Morrell did not dare look up. She was thoroughly
+angry at what she thought to be her husband's stupidity.
+
+"Why, that wouldn't deceive a child!" she thought contemptuously.
+
+"How dreadful! Who is Alder?" she said, merely to say something.
+
+Nan shook her head.
+
+"I don't know," she replied rather wildly. "One of the Vigilantes, I
+suppose. I must go out there. At once!"
+
+She ran to the hall where she began to rummage for cloaks. Mrs. Morrell
+followed her in wonderment. She was going to take this crude bait after
+all! Mrs. Morrell had not the slightest idea Nan still loved her
+husband.
+
+"You can't go alone!" she cried in apparent sympathy. "You poor child!
+Jake's Place--at this time of night!"
+
+"I'd go to hell if he needed me there!" cried Nan.
+
+Mrs. Morrell became suddenly capable and commanding.
+
+"Then I shall go with you," she announced firmly.
+
+"Oh, you're good to me!" cried Nan, full of contrition, and feeling,
+beneath her anxiety, that she had misjudged her neighbour's heart.
+
+Mrs. Morrell took charge. She lit the lantern, led the way to the
+stable, did the most toward harnessing the horse. They made rather a
+mess of it, but the horse was gentle and reliable. When they had backed
+the buggy out of the barn, she insisted on driving.
+
+"You're in no fit condition," she told Nan, and Nan obediently climbed
+in beside her.
+
+The drive was made in silence, except that occasionally Nan urged
+hurry. She sat bolt upright, her hands clasped in her lap, her figure
+rigid, trying to keep hold of herself. At Jake's Place a surly hostler
+appeared and led away their horse. Jake's Place was in darkness save
+for one lighted room on the ground floor and a dimly illuminated bar at
+the other end.
+
+It is but just to a celebrated resort that had seen and was still to
+see much of life to say that it knew nothing of the plot. Sansome had
+engaged the ground-floor parlour, and ordered a fire and drinks.
+Morrell had commanded a little supper for later. Now two ladies
+appeared. This was all normal. Without drinks, little suppers, and the
+subsequent appearance of ladies, Jake's Place would soon have
+languished.
+
+Nan leaped over the wheel to the ground as soon as the buggy had
+stopped, and before the dilatory hostler had cramped aside the wheel.
+
+"Where is he?" she demanded breathlessly. The hostler jerked a thumb at
+the lighted windows. Without a word Nan ran up the steps and to the
+door. The hostler looked after her flying figure, then grinned up at
+Mrs. Morrell.
+
+"Yum! yum!" said he, "but she's the eager little piece!"
+
+Mrs. Morrell gave him a coin, and as he moved away with the horse, she,
+too, ran up the steps. Nan had entered the parlour door, leaving it
+open behind her. Mrs. Morrell closed it again, and locked it. Then,
+with a certainty that proved her familiarity with the place, she walked
+down the length of the veranda to a hall, which she entered.
+
+Nan had burst into a parlour with an open fire. Before it stood a small
+table crowded with bottles and glasses. Sansome rose, rather
+unsteadily, from one of the easy chairs. Nan uttered an exclamation of
+relief as she recognized him.
+
+"Oh, I'm glad you're here!" she cried. "This is kind! How is he? Where
+is he?"
+
+
+
+
+LXXII
+
+
+Morrell had no easy day with Ben Sansome. He had been forced to spend
+the whole of it with his protege, save for the hour he had devoted to
+seeing Keith off on the piratical expedition. It was a terrible bore.
+In turn he had played on the youth's pique, the supposed insult to his
+manhood, his desire for the woman. Sansome was not naturally a valiant
+adventurer; but he had an exceedingly touchy vanity, which, with a
+little coddling, answered nearly as well. Morrell took the confident
+attitude that, of course, Sansome was not afraid; therefore Sansome was
+ashamed to be afraid.
+
+"For the moment," said the Englishman, "she's carried away by the
+glamour of this Vigilante movement. They seem to her strong men. She
+contrasts them with us men of the world, and as she cannot see that a
+polished exterior is not incompatible with strength, she has a faint
+growing contempt for us. Women like strength, masterfulness. It is the
+chance of your life to show her that a man _comme il faut_ is the equal
+of these squalid brutes in that respect. She is in love with you
+already, but she doesn't know it. All that is necessary is a show of
+masterfulness to make her realize it." He stifled a yawn. "Lord, what
+dreary piffle!" he confided to himself. He painted Keith as a
+contemptible renegade from his own class, currying favour with those
+below him, a cheap demagogue, a turncoat avid for popular power.
+
+"At heart he's a coward--all such men are. And he's so wrapped up in
+his ambition that his wife is a small matter to him. There's no danger
+from him, for he's away; and after the first flare-up we'll be able to
+handle him among us, never fear!" But after impressing this point,
+Morrell always was most careful to interpose the warning: "If it should
+come to trouble, don't let him get near you! He's absolutely rotten
+with a gun--you saw him in that farce of a duel--but he's a strong
+beggar. Don't let him get his hands on you!"
+
+"I won't," promised Sansome, a trifle shakily.
+
+Then Morrell, lighting a fresh cigar and fortifying his bored soul with
+another drink, skilfully outlined a portrait of Sansome himself as a
+hero, a dashing man of the world, a real devil among the ladies, the
+haughty and proud exponent of aristocratic high-handedness. He laid
+this on pretty thick, but Sansome had by now consumed a vast number of
+drinks, and was ready to swallow almost anything in addition. Morrell's
+customary demeanour was rather stolid, silent, and stupid; but when he
+was really interested and cared to exert himself, he became
+unexpectedly voluble and plausible. Mid-evening he drove this creature
+of his own fashioning out to Jake's Place, and deposited him in the
+parlour with the open fire, the table of drinks, and the easy chairs.
+
+His plans from this point on were based on the fact that he had started
+Keith out on an expedition that should last all night. Had there been
+the slightest chance that the injured husband could appear, you may be
+sure Morrell would not have been present. Of course witnesses were
+necessary to the meeting at the road house. With Keith imminent,
+hirelings would have been arranged for. With Keith safety away, Morrell
+saw no reason why he should not enjoy the situation himself. Therefore
+he had arranged a little supper party. Teeny McFarlane and Jimmy Ware
+were his first thought. Then he added Pop McFarlane. If he wanted Teeny
+as a witness, the party must be respectable!
+
+At the sound of wheels outside Morrell arose and slipped out the back
+door of the parlour.
+
+"Now, remember!" he told Sansome from the doorway. "Now's the chance of
+your life! You've got her love, and you must keep her. She'll cut up
+rough at first. That's when you must show what's in you. Go right after
+her!"
+
+As Nan burst into the room by one door he softly closed--and
+locked--the other behind him.
+
+
+
+
+LXXIII
+
+
+But Sansome, although he had put up a brave front to the last moment,
+was not in reality feeling near the hero of romance he looked. In spite
+of Morrell's cleverness, the Englishman had failed to observe that
+Sansome had touched the fringe of that second stage of semi-drunkenness
+when the "drinks were dying on him." While outwardly fairly sober,
+inwardly he was verging toward the incoherent. First one phase or mood
+would come to the top, then another, without order; sequence, or
+logical reason. He was momentarily dangerous or harmless. Nan's abrupt
+entrance scattered his last coherences. For the moment he fell back on
+habit, and habit was with him conventional He smiled his best smile.
+
+"Do sit down," he urged in his most society manner.
+
+This immediately convinced Nan that Keith must be badly hurt.
+
+"Tell me at once!" she demanded "Where is Milton? Is he--is--"
+
+"As far as I know," replied Sansome, still in his courtly manner, "Mr.
+Keith is in perfect health. As to where he is"--he waved an airy
+hand--"I do not know. It does not matter, does it? The point is we are
+cozy here together. Do sit down."
+
+"I don't understand," said she, advancing a step nearer, her brows
+knit, "Don't put me off. I got a note saying--"
+
+"I know; I wrote it," boasted Sansome fatuously.
+
+The blood mounted her face, her fists clenched, she advanced several
+steps fearlessly.
+
+"I don't, quite understand," she repeated, in hard, crisp tones. "You
+wrote it?' Isn't it true? What did you do such a thing for?"
+
+"To get you here, my dear, of course," rejoined Sansome gallantly. "I
+knew your puritanical scruples--I love them every one--but--"
+
+"Do you mean to say you dared decoy me here!" challenged Nan, all
+aflame. Her whole emotion was one of rage. It did not occur to her to
+be afraid of Ben Sansome, the conventional, the dilettante exquisite,
+without the gumption to say boo to a goose!
+
+This Sansome answered her, the habit of society strong within him. He
+became deprecatory, pleading, almost apologetic. His manners were on
+top and his rather weak nature quailed before the blaze of her anger.
+
+"I know it was inexcusable," he babbled, "but what could I do? I am mad
+about you! Do forgive me! Just sit down for a few moments. I don't
+blame you for being angry--any one is angry at being deceived--but do
+forgive me. If you'll only consider why I did it, you won't be angry.
+That's right," he ended soothingly, seeing that she neither spoke nor
+moved, "Just sit right down here and be comfortable. It must be cold
+driving. Let me give you a glass of sherry." He fussed about, shoving
+forward an armchair, arranging pillows, unstopping the decanter.
+
+"You fool!" she ejaculated in a low voice. She looked him all up and
+down, and turned to go.
+
+The door was locked! For the first time she noticed that Mrs. Morrell
+had not followed her in. Her heart fluttered in sudden panic, which she
+subdued. She moved toward the other door.
+
+The words, and especially the frustration of her intention, brought
+another mood to the surface of Sansome's intoxication. The polished
+society man with the habit of external unselfishness disappeared.
+Another Sansome, whom Nan did not recognize, sprang to take his place.
+
+"No, you don't!" he snarled. "That door's locked, too. You don't get
+out of here until I choose to let you out!"
+
+"You'll let me out; and you'll let me out right now, or I'll call for
+help," said Nan determinedly.
+
+Sansome deliberately seated himself, stretching his legs out straight
+before him, his hands in his pockets. This was the masterful role he
+had seen himself playing, and he instinctively took the attitude
+approved by the best melodramatic masters.
+
+"Call all you please," he sneered. "Nobody's going to pay any attention
+to your calls at Jake's Place!"
+
+Nan's heart went cold as she realized the complete truth of this. She
+was beginning to know fear. This was a new sort of creature before her,
+one with which she was acquainted only by instinct. She did not know
+what to do next, except that she saw surely that open opposition would
+only aggravate the situation.
+
+"I must gain time!" she told herself, though to what end she could not
+have said.
+
+Her pulses beat wildly, but she forced herself to a specious calmness.
+
+"But Ben," she said as naturally as she could, "why did you do so
+foolish a thing as this? It might make all kinds of trouble. You can
+always see me at the house; you know that. Why did you get me out on
+this mad expedition? If we were to be seen here by anybody we would be
+deeply compromised."
+
+The words reminded her of Mrs. Morrell; but out of sheer terror she
+resolutely thrust that idea from her mind. At this appeal Sansome
+suddenly became maudlin.
+
+"You've treated me like a dog lately--a yellow dog!" he mourned. "What
+good did it do to go to your house and be treated like a yellow dog?"
+
+Nan's faculties were beginning to rally after the first panic. Her
+heart was still thumping violently, but her eyes were bright, and her
+fighting courage was flowing back. For the first time his obvious
+condition registered on her brain.
+
+"He's drunk!" she thought.
+
+This discovery at first induced in her another, small panic. Then her
+courage boldly took it as a point of attack. The man was drunk and
+dangerous; very well, let us make him more drunk and less dangerous.
+That was a desperate enough expedient, but at least it was definite.
+She crossed deliberately to the other easy chair, and sat down.
+
+"Well, let's sit down," she agreed. "No!" more decidedly, "you sit
+there, on the other side. It's more cozy," she continued, at just the
+right moment to get her effect on his instinct of good manners. "Now, I
+will have that sherry. No, don't bother; it is next my hand. You must
+drink with me. Let me pour it for you--with my own hands--aren't you
+flattered?"
+
+She smiled across at him. This sudden reversion to an easy every-day
+plane had brought Sansome's first mood again to the surface. In this
+atmosphere of orderly tete-a-tete he was again the society man. Nan
+breathed freer. He murmured something inane and conventional about Hebe.
+
+"Meaning you're a little tin god?" she chaffed.
+
+He said something still more involved, to the effect that her presence
+would make a god out of the most unworthy mortal. It was all vapid,
+unreal, elaborate, artificial.
+
+"If I can only keep him at this!" thought she desperately.
+
+She had drunk her glass of sherry because she felt she needed it. Now
+she poured another, and without comment, refilled Sansome's whiskey
+glass.
+
+"Here's to us!" she cried, lifting her glass.
+
+Nan's plan of getting him so drunk that he would not interfere with her
+escape had the merit of simplicity, and also of endorsement by such
+excellent authority as melodrama and the novel. It had the defect of
+being entirely theoretical. Nan's innocence of the matter in hand had
+not taken into account the intermediate stages of drunkenness, nor did
+she realize the strength inherent in the association of ideas. As she
+leaned forward to fill the glasses, Sansome's eyes brightened. He had
+seen women pouring wine many times before. The picture before him
+reminded him of a dozen similar pictures taken from the gallery of his
+rather disreputable past. His elaborate complimentary mood vanished. He
+pledged her ardently, and deep in his eyes began to burn a secret
+covetous flame. Nan poured her, sherry under the table.
+
+"This really is a cozy party!" she cried. "Will you have another with
+me?"
+
+The third glass of neat whiskey whirled in Sansome's head. He was
+verging toward complete drunkenness, but in the meantime became
+amorous. His eyes burned, his lips fell apart. Nan tried in desperation
+to keep on a plane of light persiflage, to hold him to his chair and to
+the impersonal. Deep fear entered her. She urged more drink on him,
+hoping that he would be overpowered. It was like a desperate race
+between this man's passions and the deep oblivion that reached for
+them. Her mouth was dry, and her brain whirled. Only by the greatest
+effort could she prevent herself from flying to pieces. Sansome hardly
+appeared to hear her. He wagged his head at her, looking upon her with
+swimming, benevolent eyes. Suddenly, without warning, he sprang up,
+overturning with a crash the small table and the bottles and glasses.
+
+"By God, you're the most beautiful woman I ever saw!" he cried. "Come
+here!"
+
+He advanced on her, his eyes alight. She saw that the crisis had come,
+and threw aside all pretence.
+
+"Keep away! Keep away!" she warned him through, gritted teeth; then, as
+he continued to stumble toward her, she struck at him viciously again
+and again with one of the small light chairs.
+
+For a moment or so she actually managed to beat him off; but he lunged
+through the blows and seized her around the shoulders.
+
+"Reg'lar little tiger cat!" he murmured with fond admiration.
+
+His reeking breath was on her neck as he sought her mouth. She threw
+her head back and to one side, fighting desperately and silently,
+tearing at him with her hands, writhing her body, lowering her head as
+he forced her around, kicking at his shin. The man's strength was as
+horrible as it was unexpected. The efforts to which she was giving her
+every ounce did not appear to have the slightest effect on him, His
+handsome weak face continued to smile foolishly and fondly down on her.
+
+"Reg'lar little tiger cat!" he repeated over and over.
+
+The terrible realization dawned on her that he was too much for her.
+Her body suddenly went lax. She threw back her and screamed.
+
+
+
+
+LXXIV
+
+
+The plot which Morrell had first suggested idly and as sort of a joke,
+but which later he had entered into with growing belief, was quite
+perfect in all details but one: he assumed that Keith had accompanied
+Durkee's expedition, and was sure that he had seen the young lawyer
+off. As a matter of fact, Keith had been recalled. A messenger had at
+the very last moment handed him an order sealed with the well-known
+open eye, and signed "33 Secretary." It commanded him to proceed with
+certain designated men to the arrest of certain others inscribed on the
+black list. This was a direct order, whereas the present expedition was
+wholly a voluntary affair. Keith had no alternative but to obey, though
+he did so reluctantly, for this search for arms had promised sport.
+Therefore, he stepped ashore at the last instant; a proceeding
+unobserved by Morrell, who was surveying the scene from a distance, and
+who turned away once the sails were hoisted.
+
+The duty to which Keith had been assigned took some time. The men had
+to be searched out one by one, escorted to headquarters, and the usual
+formalities there accomplished. It was late in the evening before he
+was free to go home. He let himself in with his latchkey, and had just
+turned up the low-burning gas in the hall when the sound of hurrying
+feet brought him back to the door. He flung it open to confront Mrs.
+Sherwood and Krafft. They were both panting as though they had run some
+distance and Krafft's usually precise attire was dishevelled and awry,
+as though it had been hastily put on.
+
+"Nan!" gasped Mrs. Sherwood. "Is she here?"
+
+Keith, with instant decision, asking no questions, threw open the
+parlour door, glanced within, ran upstairs three steps at a time, but
+almost immediately returned after a hasty inspection of the upper
+story. His face had gone very pale, but he had himself in perfect
+control.
+
+"Well?" he demanded crisply, looking from one to the other.
+
+But Mrs. Sherwood did not stop to answer. With a stifled exclamation
+she darted from the house. Krafft looked after her, bewildered. Keith
+shook him savagely by the shoulder.
+
+"Speak up, man! Quick! What is it?" demanded Keith. His voice was
+vibrant with suppressed excitement, but he held himself outwardly calm,
+and waited immobile until the end of Krafft's story. It was
+characteristic of him as of all strong men in a crisis that he made no
+move whatever until he was sure he had grasped the whole situation.
+
+Krafft was just going to bed--he always retired early--when he was
+called to the door by Mex Ryan. Mex had never come to his house before.
+He was a shoulder striker and a thug; but he had one sure streak of
+loyalty in that nothing could ever induce him to go back on a pal. For
+various reasons he considered Krafft a pal. He was very much troubled.
+
+"Look here, boss," he said to Krafft, "It just come to my mind a while
+ago: what was the name of that bloke you told me to keep off'n? The
+Cora trial man, I mean."
+
+Krafft recalled the circumstance, and named Keith.
+
+Mex slapped his head.
+
+"That's right! It come to me afterward. Well, there's dirty work with
+his wife. That's where I see the name, on the outside of the note. I
+just give her a fake letter that says her husband is shot, and she's to
+go to him."
+
+"How did he know what the letter said?" interjected Keith at this point.
+
+"He'd read anything given him, of course. Mex knew the letter was
+false. I came up to find your house. I didn't know where you lived, so
+I stopped at John Sherwood's to inquire. Mrs. Sherwood was home alone.
+She came with me."
+
+"Where did this letter say I was supposed to be?" asked Keith,
+
+"Jake's Place."
+
+"My God!" cried Keith, and leaped for the door. At the same instant
+Mrs. Sherwood's voice was heard from the darkness.
+
+"Come here," she cried, "I have a rig."
+
+They found her seated in a buggy. Both climbed in beside her. Keith
+took the reins, and lashed the horse with the light whip. The
+astonished animal leaped; the buggy jerked forward.
+
+Then began a wild, careering, bumpy ride into the night. The road was
+fearful and all but invisible. The carriage swayed and swung
+dangerously. Keith drove, every faculty concentrated. No one spoke. The
+dim and ghostly half-guessed forms of things at night streamed past.
+
+"Who sent that letter?" demanded Keith finally.
+
+"Mex wouldn't tell me," replied Krafft.
+
+"How long ago did he deliver it?"
+
+"About an hour."
+
+The horse plunged frantically under the lash as this reply reached
+Keith. The buggy was all but overturned. He pulled the frantic animal
+down to a slower pace, and with an obvious effort regained control of
+himself.
+
+"Can't afford an accident!" he warned himself.
+
+"Are you armed?" Mrs. Sherwood asked him suddenly.
+
+"Yes--no, I left my gun at headquarters--that doesn't matter."
+
+Mrs. Sherwood made no comment. The wind caught her hair and whipped it
+about. In the distance now twinkled the lights of Jake's Place. Keith
+took a firmer grip on the reins, and again applied the whip. They swept
+into the gravelled driveway on two wheels, righted themselves, and
+rounded to the veranda. Keith pulled up and leaped to the ground.
+Nobody was visible. From the veranda he turned on them.
+
+"Here, you!" he commanded Mrs. Sherwood sharply, "I can't have you in
+this row! Stay here, outside. You take care of her," he told Krafft.
+"No, I mean it!"
+
+On his words a scream burst from the lighted room. Keith sprang to the
+door, found it locked, and drew back. With a low mighty rush he thrust
+his shoulder against the panel near the lock. The wood splintered. He
+sprang forward into the room.
+
+
+
+
+LXXV
+
+
+After turning the key in the lock outside the parlour door Mrs. Morrell
+slipped along the dark veranda, passed through a narrow hall, and
+entered a small back sitting-room. Jake's Place especially abounded in
+sitting-rooms. This particular one was next the parlour, so that one
+listening intently could be more or less aware of what was going on in
+the larger room. Here Morrell was already seated, a bottle of beer next
+his hand. He raised his eyebrows on her entrance, and she nodded back
+reassuringly. She, too, sat down and helped herself to beer. Both
+smoked. For a long time neither said anything.
+
+"Don't hear much in there," observed Mrs. Morrell finally, in a low
+guarded tone.
+
+"Not a sound," agreed Morrell. "You don't suppose she--"
+
+"No, I don't think so."
+
+"Then I don't see what ails that fool, Sansome! It'd be just like him
+to jib."
+
+"What does it matter?" observed Mrs. Morrell philosophically, "We don't
+care what is happening inside as long as those two doors stay locked
+until Teeny and Jimmy Ware get here."
+
+As has been mentioned, Pop McFarlane was also of the party; but,
+characteristically, neither would have thought that fact worth
+mentioning.
+
+"Just the same, as a matter of academic interest, I'd have expected her
+to make more of a  row," said Morrell. "I'll wager for all her airs she
+runs the same gait as all the rest of you."
+
+"Do you mean me?" demanded Mrs. Morrell, her eyes flashing dangerously.
+
+"Moderate your voice, my dear," advised he. "My remark was wholly
+general of your charming sex."
+
+From the parlour now they heard faintly the first sounds of struggle.
+
+"That's more like," he said with satisfaction. "I hate to have my
+ideals shattered."
+
+Wheels became audible.
+
+"There's Teeny, now," he observed, arising. He sauntered down the hall
+and looked out. "Keith!" he whispered back over his shoulder. "Where in
+hell did he come from?" He continued to peer into the darkness.
+"There's two others. Well, at any rate, we have plenty of witnesses!"
+He turned to Mrs. Morrell. "You'd better make yourself scarce. You
+locked that door, you know!"
+
+"Scarce!" she repeated, staring at him. "Where? How?"
+
+He looked at her through narrowed lids.
+
+"Get a horse of Jake," he said at last. "I'll meet you--oh, at the
+house. We'll arrange later."
+
+He watched her rather opulent figure steal down the dim hallway. A
+cynical smile flashed under his moustache. He turned back to the drama
+before him. The buggy had disappeared; the veranda was apparently empty.
+
+"Now I wonder who will shoot who?" speculated Morrell.
+
+He stole to the first of the windows. The lower blinds were drawn, but
+the upper half of the window was clear. Morrell cautiously placed a
+stool nearby, and mounted it so he could see into the room. For several
+minutes he watched. Then his hand stole to his pocket. He produced a
+revolver.
+
+
+
+
+LXXVI
+
+
+Blinded by the light, Keith stood for a barely appreciable moment in
+the wrecked doorway. Sansome, startled by the crash, relaxed his
+efforts. Nan thrust him from her so strongly that he staggered back.
+Keith's vision cleared. He appreciated the meaning of the tableau,
+uttered a choked growl, and advanced.
+
+Immediately Sansome drew and presented his weapon. He was shocked far
+toward sobriety, but the residue of the whiskey fumes in combination
+with a sudden sick and guilty panic imbued him with a sort of
+desperation. Sansome was a bold and dashing villain only as long as
+things came his way. His amours had always been of the safe rather than
+the wildly adventurous sort. Sansome had no morals; but being found out
+produced effects so closely resembling those of conscience that they
+could not be distinguished. In the chaotic collapse of this heroic
+episode he managed to cling to but one thing. That was Morrell's often
+reiterated warning: "Don't let Keith get his hands on you!"
+
+At the sight of his levelled weapon, Nan, who was nearest, uttered a
+stifled cry and made as though to throw herself on him.
+
+"Stop!" commanded Keith, without looking toward her. But so quietly
+authoritative was his voice and manner that in spite of herself her
+impulse was checked. She remained rigid.
+
+Keith advanced steadily on Sansome, his hands clenched at his side, his
+eye's fixed frowningly and contemptuously on those of the other man.
+The pistol barrel was held on his breast. Sansome fully intended to
+shoot, but found himself unable to pull the trigger. This is a
+condition every rifleman knows well by experience; he calls it being
+"frozen on the bull's eye," when, the alignment perfect, his rifle
+steady as a rock, he nevertheless cannot transmit just the little nerve
+power necessary to crook the forefinger. Three times Sansome sent the
+message to his trigger finger; three times the impulse died before it
+had compassed the distance between his brain and his hand. This was
+partly because his correlations had been weakened by the drink; partly
+because his fuddled mind was divided between fear, guilt, despair, and
+a rage at himself for having got into such a mess; but principally
+because he was hypnotically dominated by the other man's stronger
+personality.
+
+So evident was this that a sudden feeling of confidence replaced in Nan
+the sick terror at the sight of the weapon. She seemed to know
+positively that here was no real peril. A wave of contempt for Sansome,
+even as a dangerous creature, mingled with a passionate admiration for
+the man who thus dominated him unarmed.
+
+Sansome's nerve broke. He dropped his hand, looked to right and left
+frantically like a rat in a corner, uttered a very ratty squeak.
+Suddenly he hurled the loaded pistol blindly at Keith, and plunged
+bodily, with an immense crash of breaking glass, through the closed
+window. Keith, with a snarl of baffled rage, dashed forward.
+
+The sight seemed to touch Nan's sense of humour. She laughed at the
+picture, caught her breath, gasped. Keith whirled and snatched her
+fiercely in his arms.
+
+"Nan!" he cried in an agony, "are you all right? What did that beast--"
+
+She clung to him, still choking, on the edge of hysterics. In a moment
+of illumination she realized that the intangible barrier these past
+years had so slowly built between them had gone crashing down before
+the assault of the old love triumphant.
+
+"I'm all right, dear," she gasped; "really all right. And I never was
+so happy in my life!"
+
+They clung together frantically, he patting her shoulder, her cheek
+against his own, murmuring broken, soothing little phrases. The time
+and the place did not exist for them.
+
+A scuffle outside, which they had only vaguely sensed, and which had
+not at all penetrated to their understandings, came to an end. Mrs.
+Sherwood appeared in the doorway. Her dress was torn and dishevelled, a
+strand of her smooth hair had fallen across her forehead, an angry red
+mark showed on one cheek. But she was in high spirits. Her customary
+quiet poise had given place to a vibrant, birdlike, vital, quivering
+eagerness. To the two in the centre of the room, still clasped in each
+other's arms, came the same thought: that never, in spite of her
+ruffled plumes, in spite of the cheek already beginning to swell, had
+this extraordinary woman looked so beautiful! Then Keith realized that
+she was panting heavily, and was clinging to the doorway. He sprang to
+her assistance.
+
+"What is it? Where is Krafft?" he asked.
+
+She laughed a little, and permitted him to help her to an armchair into
+which she sank. She waved aside Keith's attempts to find a whole glass
+in the wreckage of the table.
+
+"I'm all right," she said, "and isn't this a nice little party?"
+
+"What has happened? Where is Krafft?" repeated Keith.
+
+"I sent him to the stable for help. There didn't seem to be anybody
+about the place."
+
+"But what happened to you? Did that brute Sansome--"
+
+"Sansome? was that Sansome? the one who came through the window?" She
+dabbed at her cheek. "You might wet me a handkerchief or a towel or
+something," she suggested. "No, he didn't stop!" she laughed again.
+"Are you all right?" she asked anxiously of Nan.
+
+"Yes. But tell us--"
+
+"Well, children, I was waiting on the veranda, obeying orders like a
+good girl, when, in the dim light I saw a man mount a stool and look
+into the room. He was very much interested. I crept up quite close to
+him without his knowing it. I heard him mutter to himself something
+about a 'weak kneed fool.' Then he drew a revolver. He looked quite
+determined and heroic"--she giggled reminiscently--"so I kicked the
+stool out from under him! About that time there was a most terrific
+crash, and somebody came out through the window."
+
+"But your cheek, your hair--"
+
+"I tried to hold him, but he was too strong for me. He hit me in the
+face, wrenched himself free, and ran. That was all; except that he
+dropped the pistol, and I'm going to keep it as a trophy."
+
+Keith was looking at her, deep in thought.
+
+"I don't understand," he said slowly. "Who could it have been?"
+
+Mrs. Sherwood shook her head.
+
+"Somebody about to shoot a pistol; that's all I know. I couldn't see
+his face."
+
+"Whoever it was, you saved one or both of us," said Keith, "there's no
+doubt in my mind of that. Let's see the pistol."
+
+It proved to be one of the smaller Colt's models, about 31 calibre, cap
+and ball, silver plated, with polished rosewood handles, and heavily
+engraved with scrollwork. Turning it over, Keith finally discovered on
+the bottom of the butt frame two letters scratched rudely, apparently
+with the point of a knife. He took it closer to the light.
+
+"I have it," said he. "Here are the letters C.M."
+
+"Charles Morrell!" cried both women in a breath.
+
+At this moment appeared Krafft, somewhat out of wind, followed by the
+surly and reluctant proprietor from whom the place took its name. Jake
+had been liberally paid to keep himself and his staff out of the way.
+Now finding that he was not wanted, he promptly disappeared.
+
+"Let's get to the bottom of this thing," said Keith decisively. "If
+those are really meant for Morrell's initials, what was he doing here?"
+
+"Mrs. Morrell came out with me," put in Nan.
+
+"Jake told me there was to be a supper party later," said Krafft.
+
+"It's clear enough," contributed Mrs. Sherwood. "The whole thing is a
+plot to murder or do worse. I've been through '50 and '51, and I know."
+
+"I can't believe yet that Sansome--" said Keith doubtfully.
+
+"Oh, Sansome is merely a tool, I don't doubt," replied Mrs. Sherwood.
+
+"I can find out to-morrow from Mex Ryan who sent the note," said Krafft.
+
+"Let's get out of this horrible place!" cried Nan with a convulsive
+shiver.
+
+Again they had great difficulty in finding any one to get their rigs,
+but finally repeated calls brought the hostler and Jake himself. The
+latter made some growl about payment for the entertainment, but at this
+Keith turned on him with such concentrated fury that he muttered
+something and slouched away. It was agreed that Krafft should conduct
+Mrs. Sherwood. They clambered into the two buggies and drove away.
+
+
+
+
+LXXVII
+
+
+The horse plodded slowly down the gravelled drive of the road house and
+turned into the main highway. It was very dark on earth, and very
+bright in the heavens. The afternoon fog had cleared away, dissipated
+in the warm air from the sand hills, for the day had been hot. Overhead
+flared thousands of stars, throwing the world small. Nan, shivering in
+reaction, nestled against her husband. He drew her close. She rested
+her cheek against his shoulder and sighed happily. Neither spoke.
+
+At first Keith's whole being was filled with rage. His mind whirled
+with plans for revenge. On the morrow he would hunt down Morrell and
+Sansome. At the thought of what he would do to them, his teeth clamped
+and his muscles stiffened. Then he became wholly preoccupied with Nan's
+narrow escape. His quick mind visualized a hundred
+possibilities--suppose he had gone on Durkee's expedition? Suppose Mex
+Ryan had not happened to remember his name? Suppose Mrs. Sherwood and
+Krafft had not found him? Suppose they had been an hour later?
+Suppose--He leaned over tenderly to draw the lap robe closer about her.
+She had stopped shivering and was nestling contentedly against him.
+
+But gradually the storm in Keith's soul fell. The great and solemn
+night stood over against his vision, and at last he could not but look.
+The splendour of the magnificent skies, the dreamy peace of the
+velvet-black earth lying supine like a weary creature at rest--these
+two simple infinities of space and of promise took him to themselves.
+An eager glad chorus of frogs came from some invisible pool. The
+slithering sound of the sand dividing before the buggy wheels
+whispered. Every once in a while the plodding horse sighed deeply.
+
+With the warm cozy feel of the woman, his woman, in the hollow of his
+arm, his spirit stilled and uplifted by the simple yet august and
+eternal things before him, Keith fell into inchoate rumination. The
+fever of activity in the city, the clash of men's interests, greeds,
+and passions, the tumult and striving, the sweat and dust of the arena
+fell to nothing about his feet. He cleared his vision of the small
+necessary unessentials, and stared forth wide-eyed at the big
+simplicities of life--truth as one sees it, loyalty to one's ideal,
+charity toward one's beaten enemy, a steadfast front toward one's
+unbeaten enemy, scorn of pettiness, to be unafraid. Unless the struggle
+is for and by these things, it is useless, meaningless. And one's
+possessions--Keith's left arm tightened convulsively. He had come near
+to losing the only possession worth while. At the pressure Nan stirred
+sleepily.
+
+"Are we there, dear?" she inquired, raising her head.
+
+Keith had reined in the horse, and was peering into the surrounding
+darkness. He laughed.
+
+"No, we seem to be here," he replied, "And I'm blest if I know where
+'here' is! I've been day-dreaming!"
+
+"I believe I've been asleep," confessed Nan.
+
+They both stared about them, but could discern nothing familiar in the
+dim outlines of the hills. Not a light flickered.
+
+"Perhaps if you'd give the horse his head, he'd take us home. I've
+heard, they would," suggested Nan.
+
+"He's had his head completely for the last two hours. That theory is
+exploded. We must have turned wrong after leaving Jake's Place."
+
+"Well, we're on a road. It must go somewhere."
+
+Keith, with some difficulty, managed to awaken the horse. It sighed and
+resumed its plodding.
+
+"I'm afraid we're lost," confessed Keith.
+
+"I don't much care," confessed Nan.
+
+"He seems to be a perfectly safe horse," said he.
+
+By way of answer to this she passed her arms gently about his neck and
+bent his lips to hers. The horse immediately stopped.
+
+"Seems a fairly intelligent brute, too," observed Keith, after a few
+moments.
+
+"Did you ever see so many stars?" said she.
+
+The buggy moved slowly, on through the night. They did not talk.
+Explanations and narrative could wait until the morrow--a distant
+morrow only dimly foreseen, across this vast ocean of night. All sense
+of tune or direction left them; they were wandering irresponsibly,
+without thought of why, as children wander and get lost. After a long
+time they saw a silver gleam far ahead and below them.
+
+"That must be the bay," said Keith. "If we turn to the right we ought
+to get back to town."
+
+"I suppose so," said Nan.
+
+A very long time later the horse stopped short with an air of finality,
+and refused absolutely to proceed. Keith descended to see what was the
+matter.
+
+"The road seems to end here," he told her. "There's a steep descent
+just ahead."
+
+"What now?"
+
+"Nothing," he replied, climbing back into the buggy.
+
+The horse slumbered profoundly. They wrapped the lap robe around
+themselves. For a tune they whispered little half-forgotten things to
+each other. The pauses grew longer and longer. With an effort she
+roused herself to press her lips again to his. They, too, slept. And as
+dawn slowly lighted the world, they must have presented a strange and
+bizarre silhouette atop the hill against the paling sky--the old
+sagging buggy, the horse with head down and ears adroop, the lovers
+clasped in each other's arms.
+
+Silently all about them the new day was preparing its great spectacle.
+The stars were growing dim; the masses of eastern hills were becoming
+visible. A full rich life was swelling through the world, quietly,
+stealthily, as though under cover of darkness multitudes were stealing
+to their posts. Shortly, when the signal was given, the curtain would
+roll up, the fanfare of trumpets would resound--A meadow lark chirped
+low out of the blackness. And another, boldly, with full throat,
+uttered its liquid, joyous song. This was apparently the signal. The
+east turned gray. Mt. Tamalpais caught the first ghostly light. And
+ecstatically the birds and the insects and the flying and crawling and
+creeping things awakened, and each in his own voice and manner devoutly
+welcomed the brand-new day with its fresh, clean chances of life and
+its forgetfulness of old, disagreeable things. The meadow larks became
+hundreds, the song sparrows trilled, distant cocks crowed, and a dog
+barked exuberantly far away.
+
+Keith stirred and looked about him. Objects were already becoming dimly
+visible. Suddenly something attracted his attention. He held his head
+sideways, listening. Faintly down the little land breeze came the sound
+of a bell. It was the Vigilante tocsin. Nan sat up, blinking and
+putting her hair back from her eyes. She laughed a little happily.
+
+"Why, it's the dawn!" she cried, "We've been out all night!"
+
+"The dawn," repeated Keith, his arm about her, but his ear attuned to
+the beat of the distant bell. "The gray dawn of better things."
+
+
+
+
+LXXVIII
+
+
+As the Keiths, on the way, drove across what is now Harbour View, they
+stopped to watch a bark standing out through the Golden Gate before the
+gentle morning land breeze. She made a pretty sight, for the new-risen
+sun whitened her sails. Aboard her was the arch-plotter, Morrell. Had
+they known of that fact, it is to be doubted whether they would have
+felt any great disappointment over his escape, or any deep animosity at
+all. The outcome of his efforts had been clarifying. The bark was bound
+for the Sandwich Islands. Morrell's dispositions for flight at a
+moment's notice had been made long since; in fact, since the first days
+of Vigilante activity. He lingered in the islands for some years, at
+first cutting quite a dash; then, as his money dwindled and his schemes
+failed, he degenerated slowly. His latter end was probably as a small
+copra trader in the South Seas; but that is unknown. Mrs. Morrell--if
+indeed she was the man's legal wife at all--thus frankly abandoned, put
+a bold front on the whole matter. She returned to her house. As the
+Keiths in no manner molested her, she took heart. With no resources
+other than heavily mortgaged real property, she found herself forced to
+do something for a living. In the course of events we see Mrs. Morrell
+keeping a flashy boarding-house, hanging precariously on the outer
+fringe of the lax society of the times, frowned upon by the
+respectable, but more or less sought by the fast men and young girls
+only too numerous among the idle of that day.
+
+Ben Sansome went south. For twenty years he lived in Los Angeles, where
+he cut a figure, but from which he always cast longing eyes back upon
+San Francisco. He had a furtive lookout for arrivals from the north.
+One day, however, he came face to face with Keith. As the latter did
+not annihilate him on the spot, Sansome plucked up courage. He returned
+to San Francisco, There in time he attained a position dear to his
+heart; he became an "old beau," frequenting the teas and balls,
+appraising the debutantes, giving his opinion on vintage wines, leading
+a comfortable, idle, selfish, useless, graceful life. His only
+discomfort was his occasional encounters with the Keiths. Mrs. Keith
+never distinguished him from thin air unless others were present. Keith
+had always in his eye a gleam of contempt which, perhaps, Sansome
+acknowledged, was natural; but it was a contempt with a dash of
+amusement in it, and that galled. Still--Ben was satisfied. He gained
+the distinction of having discovered the epicurean value of sand-dabs.
+
+The Sherwoods founded the family of that name.
+
+Terry, arrested for the stabbing of Hopkins, was at first very humble,
+promising to resign his Supreme Court Judgeship. As time went on he
+became arrogant. The Committee of Vigilance was rather at a loss. If
+Hopkins died, they could do no less than hang Terry: and they realized
+fully that in executing a Justice of the Supreme Court they were
+entering deep waters. To the relief of everybody Hopkins fully
+recovered. After being held closely in custody, Terry was finally
+released, with a resolution that he be declared unfit for office. Once
+free, however, he revised his intention of resigning. His subsequent
+career proved as lawless and undisciplined as its earlier promise.
+Finally he was killed while in the act of attempting to assassinate
+Justice Stephen Field, an old, weak, helpless, and unarmed man. If
+Terry holds any significance in history, it is that of being the
+strongest factor in the complete wrecking of the Law and Order party!
+
+For with the capture of the arsenals, and all their arms, open
+opposition to the Committee of Vigilance came to an end. The Executive
+Committee continued its work. Numberless malefactors and suspects were
+banished; two more men, Hetherington and Brace, were solemnly hanged.
+On the 8th. of August the cells were practically empty. It was
+determined to disband on the 21st.
+
+That ceremony was signalized by a parade on the 18th. Four regiments of
+infantry, two squadrons of cavalry, a battalion of riflemen, a
+battalion of pistol men, and a battalion of police were in line. The
+entire city turned out to cheer.
+
+As for the effects of this movement, the reader must be referred to the
+historians. It is sufficient to say that for years San Francisco
+enjoyed a model government and almost complete immunity from crime.
+
+One evening about twilight two men stood in the gathering shadows of
+the Plaza. They were old friends, but had in times of stress stood on
+opposite sides. The elder man shook his head skeptically.
+
+"That is all very well," said he, "but where are your Vigilantes now?"
+
+The other raised his hand toward the great bell of the Monumental
+silhouetted against the afterglow in the sky.
+
+"Toll that bell, sir, and you will see!" replied Coleman solemnly.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gray Dawn, by Stewart Edward White
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