In the Heart of a Fool Part 43

A LONG CHAPTER BUT A BUSY ONE, IN WHICH KENYON ADAMS AND HIS MOTHER HAVE A STRANGE MEETING, AND LILA VAN DORN TAKES A NIGHT RIDE

The next morning at eight o'clock, Grant Adams came hurrying into Brotherton's store. As he strode down the long store room, Brotherton thought that Grant in his street clothes looked less of a person than Grant in his overalls. But the big man rose like a frisky mountain in earthquake and called:

"h.e.l.lo there, Danton--going to shake down the furnace fires of revolution this morning, I understand."

Grant stared at Brotherton. Solemnly he said, as he stood an awkward moment before sitting. "Well, Mr. Brotherton, the time has come, when I must fight. To-day is the day!"

"Yes," replied Brotherton, "I heard a few minutes ago that they were going to run you out of the district to-day. The meeting in the Commercial Club rooms is being called now."

"Yes," said Grant, "and I've been asked to appear before them."

"I guess they are going to try and bluff you out, Grant," said Brotherton.

"I got wind of it last night," said Grant, "when they nailed up the last hall in the Valley against me. One after another of the public halls has been closed to me during the past year. But to-day is to be our first public rally of the delegates of the Wahoo Valley Trades Council. We have rented office rooms in the second floor of the Vanderbilt House in South Harvey, and are coming out openly as an established labor organization, ready for business in the Valley, and we are going to have a big meeting--somewhere--I don't know where now, but somewhere--" his face turned grim and a fanatic flame lighted his eyes as he spoke.

"Somewhere the delegates of the Council will meet to-night, and I shall talk to them--or--"

"Soh, boss--soh, boss--don't get excited," counseled Mr. Brotherton.

"They'll blow off a little steam in the meeting this morning, and then you go on about your business."

"But you don't know what I know, George Brotherton," protested Grant as he leaned forward. "I have converted enough spies--oh, no--not counting the spies who were converted merely to scare me--but enough real spies to know that they mean business!" He stopped, and sitting back in his chair again, he said grimly, "And so do I--I shall talk to the men to-night, or--"

"All right, son; you'll talk or 'the boy, oh, where was he?' I'll tell you what," cried Mr. Brotherton; "you'll fool around with the buzz saw till you'll get killed. Now, look here, Grant--I'm for your revolution, and six buckets of blood. But you can't afford to lose 'em! You're dead right about the chains of slavery and all that sort of thing, but don't get too excited about it. You live down there alone with your father and he is talking to spooks, and you're talking to yourself; and you've got a kind of ingrown idea of this thing. Give the Lord a little time, and he'll work out this pizen in our social system. I'll help you, and maybe before long Doc'll see the light and help you; but now you need a regulator. You ought to have a wife and about six children to hook you up to the ordinary course of nature! And see here, Grant," Mr.

Brotherton dropped a weighty hand on Grant's shoulder, "if you don't be careful you'll furnish the ingredients of a public funeral, and where will your revolution be then--and the boys in the Valley and your father and Kenyon?"

While Brotherton was speaking, Grant sat with an impa.s.sive face. But when Kenyon's name was uttered he looked up quickly and answered:

"That is why I am here this morning; it's about Kenyon. George Brotherton, that boy is more than life to me." The fanatic light was gone from Grant's eyes, and the soft glow in them revealed a man that George Brotherton had not seen in years. "Mr. Brotherton," continued Grant, "father is getting too old to do much for Kenyon. The Nesbits have borne practically all the expense of educating him. But the Doctor won't always be here." Again he hesitated. Then he went ahead as if he had decided for the last time. "George Brotherton, if I should be snuffed out, I want you to look after Kenyon--if ever he needs it. You have no one, and--" Grant leaned forward and grasped Brotherton's great hands and cried, "George Brotherton, if you knew the gold in that boy's heart, and what he can do with a violin, and how his soul is unfolding under the spell of his music. He's so dumb and tongue-tied and unformed now; and yet--"

"Well--say!" It came out of Mr. Brotherton with a crash like a falling tree, "Grant--well, say! Through sickness and health, for better or for worse, till death do us part--if that will satisfy you." He put his big paw over and grabbed Grant's steel hook and jerked him to his feet.

"You've sure sold Kenyon into bondage. When I saw him last night--honest to G.o.d, man--I thought I'd run into a picture roaming around out of stock without a frame! Him and me together can do Ariel and Prospero without a scratch of make-up." Grant beamed, but when Brotherton exclaimed as an afterthought, "Say, man, what about that boy's eyes?"

Grant's features mantled and the old grim look overcast his face, as Brotherton went on: "Why, them eyes would make a madonna's look like fried eggs! Where did he get 'em--they're not Sands and they're not Adams. He must take back to some Peri that blew into Ma.s.sachusetts from an enchanted isle." Brotherton saw that he was annoying Grant in some way. Often he realized that his language was not producing the desired effect; so he veered about and said gently, "You're not in any danger, Grant; but so long as I'm wearing clothes that b.u.t.ton up the front--don't worry about Kenyon, I'll look after him."

Five minutes later, Grant was standing in the front door of Brotherton's store, gazing into Market Street. He saw Daniel Sands and Kyle Perry and Tom Van Dorn walking out of one store and into the next. He saw John Kollander in a new blue soldier uniform stalking through the street. He saw the merchants gathering in small, volatile groups that kept forming and re-forming, and he knew that Mr. Brotherton's cla.s.sic language was approximately correct when he said there was a hen on. Grant eyed the crowd that was hurrying past him to the meeting like a hungry hound watching a drove of chickens. Finally, when Grant saw that the last straggler was in the hall, he turned and stalked heavily to the Commercial Club rooms, yet he moved with the self-consciousness of one urged by a great purpose. His head was bent in reflection. His hand held his claw behind him, and his shoulders stooped. He knew his goal, but the way was hard and uncertain, and he realized the peril of a strategic misstep at the outset. Heavily he mounted the steps to the hall, entered, and took a seat in the rear. He sat with his head bowed and his gaze on the floor. He was aware that Judge Van Dorn was speaking; but what the Judge was saying did not interest Grant. His mind seemed aloof from the proceedings. Suddenly what he had prepared to say slipped out of his consciousness completely, as he heard the Judge declare, "We deem this, sir, a life and death struggle for our individual liberties; a life and death struggle for our social order; a life and death struggle for our continuance to exist as individuals." There was a long repet.i.tion of the terms "life and death." They appealed to some tin-pan rhythmic sense in the Judge's oratorical mind. But the phrase struck fire in Grant Adams's heart. Life and death, life and death, rang through his soul like a clamor of bells. "We have given our all,"

bellowed the Judge, "to make this Valley an industrial hive, where labor may find employment--all of our savings, all of our heritage of Anglo-Saxon organizing skill, and we view this life and death struggle for its perpetuity--" But all Grant Adams heard of that sentence was "life and death," as the great bell of his soul clanged its alarm. "We are a happy, industrial family," intoned the Judge, the suave Judge, who was something more than owner; who was Authority without responsibility, who was the voice of the absentee master; the voice, it seemed to Grant, of an enchanted peac.o.c.k squawking in the garden of a dream; the voice that cried: "and to him who would overthrow all this contentment, all this admirable adjustment of industrial equilibrium we offer the life and death alternative that is given to him who would violate a peaceful home."

But all that Grant Adams sensed of his doom in the Judge's p.r.o.nouncement was the combat of death with life. Life and death were meeting for their eternal struggle, and as the words resounded again and again in the Judge's oratory, there rushed into Grant Adams's mind the phrase, "I am the resurrection and the life," and he knew that in the life and death struggle for progress, for justice, for a more abundant life on this planet, it would be finally life and not death that would win.

As he sat blindly glaring at the floor, there may have stolen into his being some ember from the strange flame burning about our earth, whose touch makes men mad with the madness that men have, who come from the wildernesses of life, from the lowly walks and waste places--the madness of those who feed on locusts and wild honey; who, like St. Francis and Savonarola, go forth on hopeless quests for the unattainable ideal, or like John Brown, who burn in the scorching flame all the wisdom of the schools and the courts, and for one glorious day shine forth with their burning lives a beacon by which the world is lighted to its own sad shame.

Grant never remembered what he said by way of introduction as he stood staring at the crowd. It was a different crowd from audiences he knew.

To Grant it was the market place; merchants, professional men; clerks, bankers,--well-dressed men, with pale, upturned faces stretched before him to the rear of the hall. It was all black and white, and as his soul cried "life and death" back of his conscious speech, the image came to him that all these pale, black-clad figures were in their shrouds, and that he was talking to the visible body of death--laid out stiffly before him.

What answer he made to Van Dorn does not matter. Grant Adams could not recall it when he had finished. But ever as he spoke through his being throbbed the electrical beat of the words, "I am the resurrection and the life." And he was exultant in the consciousness that in the struggle of "life and death," life would surely win. So he stood and spoke with a tongue of flame.

"If you have given all--and you have, we also have given all. But our all is more vitally our all--than yours; for it is our bodies, our food and clothing; our comfortable homes; our children's education, our wives' strength; our babies' heritage; many of us have indeed given our sons' integrity and our daughters' virtue. All these we have put into the bargain with you. We have put them into the common hopper of this industrial life, and you have taken the grain and we the chaff. It is indeed a life and death struggle. And this happy family, this well-balanced industrial adjustment, this h.e.l.l of labor run through your mills like grist, this is death; death is the name for all your wicked system, that shrinks and cringes before G.o.d's ancient justice. 'I am the resurrection and the life' was not spoken across the veil that rises from the grave. It was spoken for men here in the flesh who shall soon come into a more abundant life. Life and death, life and death are struggling here this very hour, and you--you," he leaned forward shaking his steel claw in their faces, "you and your greedy system of capital are the doomed; you are death's embodiment."

Then came the outburst. All over the house rose cries. Men jumped from their chairs and waved their arms. But Judge Van Dorn quieted them. He knew that to attack Grant Adams physically at that meeting would inflame the man's followers in the Valley. So he pounded the gavel for quiet. To Adams he thundered, "Sit down, you villain!" Still the crowd hissed and jeered. A great six-footer in new blue overalls, whom Grant knew as one of the recent spies, one of the sluggers sent to the Valley, came crowding to the front of the room. But Judge Van Dorn nodded him back.

When the Judge had stilled the tumult, he said in his sternest judicial manner, "Now, Adams--we have heard enough of you. Leave this district.

Get out of this Valley. You have threatened us; we shall not protect you in life or limb. You are given two hours to leave the Valley, and after that you stay here at your own peril. If you try to hold your labor council, don't ask us, whom you have scorned, to surround you with the protection of the society you would overthrow in bloodshed. Now, go--get out of here," he cried, with all the fire and fury that an outraged respectability could muster. But Grant, turning, twisted his hook in the Judge's coat, held him at arm's length, and leaning toward the crowd, with the Judge all but dangling from his steel arm, cried: "I shall speak in South Harvey to-night. This is indeed a life and death struggle, and I shall preach the gospel of life. Life," he cried with a trumpet voice, "life--the life of society, and its eternal resurrection out of the forces of life that flow from the everlasting divine spring!"

After the crowd had left the hall, Grant hurried toward the street leading to South Harvey. As he turned the corner, the man whom Grant had seen in the hall met him, the man whom Grant recognized as a puddler in one of the smelters. He came up, touched Grant on the shoulder and asked:

"Adams?" Grant nodded.

"Are you going down to South Harvey?"

Grant replied, "Yes, I'm going to hold a meeting there to-night."

"Well, if you try," said the man, pushing his face close to Grant's, "you'll get your head knocked off--that's all. We don't like your kind--understand?" Grant looked at the man, took his measure physically and returned:

"All right, there'll be some one around to pick it up--maybe!"

The man walked away, but turned to say:

"Mind now--you show up in South Harvey, and we'll fix you right!"

As Grant turned to board a South Harvey car, Judge Van Dorn caught his arm, and said:

"Wait a minute, the next car will do."

The Judge's wife was with him, and Grant was shocked to see how doll-like her face had become, how the lines of character had been smoothed out, the eyelids stained, the eyebrows penciled, the lips colored, until she had a bisque look that made him shudder. He had seen faces like hers, and fancied that he knew their story.

"I would like to speak with you just a minute. Come up to the office.

Margaret, dearie," said Van Dorn, "you wait for me at Brotherton's." In the office, Van Dorn squared himself before Grant and said:

"It's no use, sir. You can't hold a meeting there to-night--the thing's set against you. I can't stop them, but I know the rough element there will kill you if you try. You've done your best--why risk your head, man--for no purpose? You can't make it--and it's dangerous for you to try."

Grant looked at Van Dorn. Then he asked:

"You represent the Harvey Fuel Company, Judge?"

"Yes," replied the Judge with much pride of authority, "and we--"

Grant stopped him. "Judge," he said, "if you blow your horn--I'll ring my bell and--If I don't hold my meeting to-night, your mines won't open to-morrow morning." The Judge rose and led the way to the door.

"Oh, well," he sneered, "if you won't take advice, there's no need of wasting time on you."

"No," answered Grant, "only remember what I've said."

When Grant alighted from the car in South Harvey, he found his puddler friend waiting for him. The two went into the Vanderbilt House, where Grant greeted Mrs. Williams, the landlady, as an old friend, and the puddler cried: "Say, lady--if you keep this man--we'll burn your house."

"Well, burn it--it wouldn't be much loss," retorted the landlady, who turned her back upon the puddler and said to Grant: "We've given you the front room upstairs, Grant, for the committee. It has the outside staircase. Your room is ready. You know the Local No. 10 boys from the Independent are all coming around this afternoon--as soon as they learn where the meeting is."

The puddler walked away and Grant went out into the street; looked up at the wooden structure with the stairway rising from the sidewalk and splitting the house in two. Mounting the stairs, he found a narrow hall, leading down a long line of bedrooms. He realized that he must view his location as a general looks over a battlefield.

The closing of the public halls to Grant and his cause had not discouraged him. He knew that he still had the great free out-of-doors, and he had thought that an open air meeting would give the cause dramatic setting. He felt that to be barred from the halls of the Valley helped rather than hurt his meeting. The barring proved to the workers the righteousness of their demands. So Grant sallied forth to locate a vacant lot; he shot out of his room full of the force of his enthusiasm, but his force met another force as strong as his, and ruthless. G.o.d's free out of doors, known and beloved of Grant from his boyhood, was preempted: What he found in his quest for a meeting place was a large red sign, "No trespa.s.sing," upon the nearest vacant lot, and a special policeman parading back and forth in front of the lot on the sidewalk.

He found a score of lots similarly placarded and patrolled. He sent men to Magnus and Foley scurrying like ants through the Valley, but no lot was available.