Comrades Part 31

Catherine's lithe figure darted down the steps and met them on the lawn.

"What is it?" Norman cried.

"A murder!"

"A murder?" Barbara repeated, incredulously.

"Yes--wilful, deliberate, cruel, horrible!" Catherine went on excitedly.

"Not old Tom and Joe?" Norman broke in.

"No--Blanche----"

"Oh, G.o.d, I knew it," Barbara gasped. "Go on."

"Blanche kept on playing fast and loose with the two boys who fought over her the other night. George Mann found his rival in her room just now, waylaid him in the hall, and when he came out sprang on him like a fiend, stabbed him through the heart and cut his throat. The brothers of the dead boy swear they will kill the murderer on sight, and they've locked him in your room, Norman, for safety. The men are excited to frenzy. n.o.body likes the boy who did the crime. The rougher ones swear they are going to hang him. They tried to break in your door twice, but Herman knocked the ringleaders down and with Tom and Joe beat the crowd back. Something must be done at once to prevent another outbreak."

Norman hurried to the scene and joined Wolf in his defence of the prisoner. Tom formed a guard of ten men heavily armed and marched the prisoner to the top of the house, placed him in the small room in one of the central towers, and stationed one man inside and five on the stairway leading into the tower.

The executive council met immediately and voted unanimously to erect a prison, establish a penal colony on the small island at the north of Ventura, and restore the whipping-post for minor offenders.

The announcement of this momentous act was made to the general a.s.sembly without request for debate or an expression of opinion. It was received in silence.

The Bard could not protest. He was still confined to his room from the effects of a recent argument with his wife.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE CORDS TIGHTEN

On Wolf's urgent advice Norman determined to use the autocratic power invested in him by the deed of gift to establish a complete code of law and enforce it without fear or favour. As the cords tightened, scores who became dissatisfied with their lot offered their resignations and asked to return to their old homes.

In answer to their clamour Norman posted this notice on the bulletin board:

"Every member of the army of the Brotherhood of Man enlisted for five years' service. Resignations will not be considered and deserters will be tried by court-martial. I am going to use my power for the best interests of the Brotherhood. I ask the coperation of all the loyal members of the colony. Of traitors I ask no quarter, and I expect to give none.

"NORMAN WORTH, "_Trustee and General Manager_."

The effects of the proclamation were instantaneous. The helplessness of any attempt to resist authority firmly established under such daring leadership was at once apparent to the most stupid mind.

Loafing, drinking, stealing, carousing, and disorder of all kind were reduced at once to a minimum.

One act, however, of the executive council under Norman's direction precipitated a storm in an unexpected quarter.

The council removed Blanche and a group of wayward girls with whom she a.s.sociated to a cottage outside the lawn.

The women of the Brotherhood were practically unanimous in their demands that the whole group be immediately expelled from the colony.

A committee of three aggressive women presented their demand to Norman in no uncertain language.

His reply was equally emphatic:

"Comrades," he said, firmly, "I shall do nothing of the kind. We are going to work out this experiment in human society without compromise.

We have successfully cut communication with the outside world. The crew of our ship are no longer allowed to land and only picked men unload her cargo. We are not going to play the baby act and dump these girls back on the old civilization which we have denounced. They may be wayward but they are our sisters."

"They are not mine," shouted one of the committee. "The brazen creatures! And we do not propose to have our sons and daughters corrupted by a.s.sociation with them."

"Then we must find some other solution than that of transportation,"

Norman insisted.

"Send them to the penal colony, then," demanded the committee.

"And back in a circle we immediately travel to the crimes of civilization from which we fled. I prefer to send the boys who a.s.sociate with them. They are the real offenders."

"I deny that a.s.sertion," firmly declared the leader of the committee.

"My boy is one of the unfortunate victims of these brazen wretches.

Before we came to this island he never gave me a word of impudence.

From the night he met Blanche at our first ball he was beyond my advice or control. These girls are the enemies of society and this colony cannot exist if they remain within its life."

"I refuse to believe it," Norman cried, with scorn. "It is your duty to reform these girls and restore them to mental and physical sanity, and as the leader of this colony I direct you to take up this divine work."

"And I, for one," spoke, for the first time, the silent gray-haired member of the committee, "refuse to smirch my hands with the task."

Norman, looked into the calm face of this white-haired, motherly looking woman with amazement.

"I can't understand you, comrade mother!" he exclaimed, with bitterness.

"That's because you're young, handsome, inexperienced, and, above all, because you are a man," was the quick reply. "I have spent a busy life since my own children grew out of the home nest in New York City in trying to help other people's children less fortunate than my own.

I've helped scores of boys and never had one to disappoint me yet.

I've tried to help scores of girls of the type we are discussing. I've always regretted it. I found them shallow, false, lazy, stupid, worthless. I have never looked at one of them except to blush that I am a woman. I speak from the saddest and most hopeless experiences of my life."

Norman cut the argument short with a gesture of angry impatience.

"This discussion is a waste of breath. As long as I am in command of this colony no such insane act of injustice shall be committed against these girls."

"Then it's time you gave place to a man of greater wisdom and less sentimental mush in his brain," replied the calm, gray-haired woman.

"Thank you," the young leader replied, with chilling politeness, "you may be right--but in the meantime I accept the responsibility. Good day."

He had made three enemies whose power he was soon to feel. As they pa.s.sed through the doorway Catherine greeted them politely and soothed their ruffled spirits with gentle words.

CHAPTER XXIV

SOME INTERROGATION POINTS