VIII
THE HAYMAKERS
By the terms of its dating clause the new trust and corporation law becameeffective at once, "the public welfare requiring it"; and though there wasan immediate sympathetic decline in the securities involved, there was nopanic, financial or industrial, to mark the change from the old to thenew.
Contrary to the expectations of the alarmists and the lawyers, andsomewhat to the disappointment of the latter, the vested interests showedno disposition to test the constitutionality of the act in the courts. Sofar, indeed, from making difficulties, the various alien corporationsaffected by the new law wheeled promptly into line in compliance with itsprovisions, vying with one another in proving, or seeming to prove, thetime-worn aphorism that capital can never afford to be otherwise thanstrictly law-abiding.
In the reorganization of the Western Pacific, David Kent developed at onceand heartily into that rare and much-sought-for quantity, a man for anemergency. Loring, also, was a busy man in this transition period, yet hefound time to keep an appreciative eye on Kent, and, true to his impliedpromise, pushed him vigorously for the first place in the legal departmentof the localized company. Since the resident manager stood high in theBoston counsels of the company, the pushing was not without results; andwhile David Kent was still up to his eyes in the work of flogging theaffairs of the newly named Trans-Western into conformity with the law, hisappointment as general counsel came from the Advisory Board.
At one time, when success in his chosen vocation meant more to him than hethought it could ever mean again, the promoted subordinate would have hadan attack of jubilance little in keeping with the grave responsibilitiesof his office. As it fell out, he was too busy to celebrate, and too soreon the sentimental side to rejoice. Hence, his recognition of thepromotion was merely a deeper plunge into the flood of legalities and theadding of two more stenographers to his office force.
Now there is this to be said of such submersive battlings in a sea ofwork: while the fierce toil of the buffeting may be good for the swimmer'ssoul, it necessarily narrows his horizon, inasmuch as a man with his headin the sea-smother lacks the view-point of the captain who fights his shipfrom the conning tower.
So it befell that while the newly appointed general counsel of thereorganized Western Pacific was bolting his meals and clipping the nightsat both ends in a strenuous endeavor to clear the decks for a possiblebattle-royal at the capital, events of a minatory nature were shapingthemselves elsewhere.
To bring these events down to their focusing point in the period oftransition, it is needful to go back a little; to a term of the circuitcourt held in the third year of Gaston the prosperous.
Who Mrs. Melissa Varnum was; how she came to be traveling from MidlandCity to the end of the track on a scalper's ticket; and in what manner shewas given her choice of paying fare to the conductor or leaving the trainat Gaston--these are details with which we need not concern ourselves.Suffice it to say that Kent, then local attorney for the company, masteredthem; and when Mrs. Varnum, through Hawk, her counsel, sued for fivethousand dollars damages, he was able to get a continuance, knowing fromlong experience that the jury would certainly find for the plaintiff ifthe case were then allowed to go to trial.
And at the succeeding term of court, which was the one that adjourned onthe day of Kent's transfer to the capital, two of the company's witnesseshad disappeared; and the one bit of company business Kent had beensuccessful in doing that day was to postpone for a second time the comingto trial of the Varnum case.
It was while Kent's head was deepest in the flood of reorganization that aletter came from one Blashfield Hunnicott, his successor in the localattorneyship at Gaston, asking for instructions in the Varnum matter.Judge MacFarlane's court would convene in a week. Was he, Hunnicott, tolet the case come to trial? Or should he--the witnesses still beingunproducible--move for a further continuance?
Kent took his head out of the cross-seas long enough to answer. By allmeans Hunnicott was to obtain another continuance, if possible. And if,before the case were called, there should be any new developments, he wasto wire at once to the general office, and further instructions wouldissue.
It was about this time, or, to be strictly accurate, on the day precedingthe convening of Judge MacFarlane's court in Gaston, that Governor Buckstook a short vacation--his first since the adjournment of the Assembly.
One of the mysteries of this man--the only one for which his friends couldnot always account plausibly--was his habit of dropping out for a day or aweek at irregular intervals, leaving no clue by which he could be traced.While he was merely a private citizen these disappearances figured in thelocal notes of the Gaston _Clarion_ as business trips, object andobjective point unknown or at least unstated; but since his election thenewspapers were usually more definite. On this occasion, the public wasduly informed that "Governor Bucks, with one or two intimate friends, wastaking a few days' recreation with rod and gun on the headwaters of JumpCreek"--a statement which the governor's private secretary stood ready tocorroborate to all and sundry calling at the gubernatorial rooms on thesecond floor of the capitol.
Now it chanced that, like all gossip, this statement was subject tocorrection as to details in favor of the exact fact. It is true that thegovernor, his gigantic figure clad in sportsmanlike brown duck, might havebeen seen boarding the train on the Monday evening; and in addition to theample hand-bag there were rod and gun cases to bear out the newspapernotices. None the less, it was equally true that the keeper of the GunClub shooting-box at the terminus of the Trans-Western's Jump Creek branchwas not called upon to entertain so distinguished a guest as the Stateexecutive. Also, it might have been remarked that the governor traveledalone.
Late that same night, Stephen Hawk was keeping a rather discomfortingvigil with a visitor in the best suite of rooms the Mid-Continent Hotel inGaston afforded. The guest of honor was a brother lawyer--though he mighthave refused to acknowledge the relationship with the ex-districtattorney--a keen-eyed, business-like gentleman, whose name as an organizerof vast capitalistic ventures had traveled far, and whose present attitudewas one of undisguised and angry contempt for Gaston and all thingsGastonian.
"How much longer have we to wait?" he demanded impatiently, when the handsof his watch pointed to the quarter-hour after ten. "You've made me traveltwo thousand miles to see this thing through: why didn't you make sure ofhaving your man here?"
Hawk wriggled uneasily in his chair. He was used to being bullied, notonly by the good and great, but by the little and evil as well. Yet therewas a rasp to the great man's impatience that irritated him.
"I've been trying to tell you all the evening that I'm only the hired manin this business, Mr. Falkland. I can't compel the attendance of the otherparties."
"Well, it's damned badly managed, as far as we've gone," was theungracious comment. "You say the judge refuses to confer with me?"
"Ab-so-lutely."
"And the train--the last train the other man can come on; is that in yet?"
Hawk consulted his watch.
"A good half-hour ago."
"You had your clerk at the station to meet it?"
"I did."
"And he hasn't reported?"
"Not yet."
Falkland took a cigar from his case, bit the end of it like a man with agrudge to satisfy, and began again.
"There is a very unbusinesslike mystery about all this, Mr. Hawk, and Imay as well tell you shortly that my time is too valuable to make metolerant of half-confidences. Get to the bottom of it. Has your manweakened?"
"No; he is not of the weakening kind. And, besides, the scheme is his ownfrom start to finish, as you know."
"Well, what is the matter, then?"
Hawk rose.
"If you will be patient a little while longer, I'll go to the wire and tryto find out. I am as much in the dark as you are."
This last was not strictly true. Hawk had a telegram in his pocket whichwas causing him more uneasiness
than all the rasping criticisms of the NewYork attorney, and he was re-reading it by the light of the corridorbracket when a young man sprang from the ascending elevator and hurried tothe door of the parlor suite. Hawk collared his Mercury before he couldrap on the door.
"Well?" he queried sharply.
"It's just as you suspected--what Mr. Hendricks' telegram hinted at. I methim at the station and couldn't do a thing with him."
"Where has he gone?"
"To the same old place."
"You followed him?"
"Sure. That is what kept me so long."
Hawk hung upon his decision for the barest fraction of a second. Then hegave his orders concisely.
"Hunt up Doctor Macquoid and get him out to the club-house as quick as youcan. Tell him to bring his hypodermic. I'll be there with all the helphe'll need." And when the young man was gone, Hawk smote the air with aclenched fist and called down the Black Curse of Shielygh, or its modernequivalent, on all the fates subversive of well-laid plans.
A quarter of an hour later, on the upper floor of the club-house at theGentlemen's Driving Park, four men burst in upon a fifth, a huge figure inbrown duck, crouching in a corner like a wild beast at bay. A bottle and atumbler stood on the table under the hanging lamp; and with the crash ofbreaking glass which followed the mad-bull rush of the duck-clothed giant,the reek of French brandy filled the room.
"Hold him still, if you can, and pull up that sleeve." It was Macquoid whospoke, and the three apparitors, breathing hard, sat upon the prostrateman and bared his arm for the physician. When the apomorphia began to doits work there was a struggle of another sort, out of which emerged apallid and somewhat stricken reincarnation of the governor.
"Falkland is waiting at the hotel, and he and MacFarlane can't gettogether," said Hawk, tersely, when the patient was fit to listen."Otherwise we shouldn't have disturbed you. It's all day with the schemeif you can't show up."
The governor groaned and passed his hand over his eyes.
"Get me into my clothes--Johnson has the grip--and give me all the timeyou can," was the sullen rejoinder; and in due course the Honorable JasperG. Bucks, clothed upon and in his right mind, was enabled to keep hisappointment with the New York attorney at the Mid-Continent Hotel.
But first came the whipping-in of MacFarlane. Bucks went alone to thejudge's room on the floor above the parlor suite. It was now nearmidnight, but MacFarlane had not gone to bed. He was a spare man, withthin hair graying rapidly at the temples and a care-worn face; the face ofa man whose tasks or responsibilities, or both, have overmatched him. Hewas walking the floor with his head down and his hands--thin, nervelesshands they were--tightly locked behind him, when the governor entered.
For a large man the Honorable Jasper was usually able to handle his weightadmirably; but now he clung to the door-knob until he could launch himselfat a chair and be sure of hitting it.
"What's this Hawk's telling me about you, MacFarlane?" he demanded,frowning portentously.
"I don't know what he has told you. But it is too flagrant, Bucks; I can'tdo it, and that's all there is about it." The protest was feebly fierce,and there was the snarl of a baited animal in the tone.
"It's too late to make difficulties now," was the harsh reply. "You've gotto do it."
"I tell you I can not, and I will not!"
"A late attack of conscience, eh?" sneered the governor, who was soberingrapidly now. "Let me ask a question or two. How much was that securitydebt your son-in-law let you in for?"
"It was ten thousand dollars. It is an honest debt, and I shall pay it."
"But not out of the salary of a circuit judge," Bucks interposed. "Nor yetout of the fees you make your clerks divide with you. And that isn't all.Have you forgotten the gerrymander business? How would you like to see thetrue inwardness of that in the newspapers?"
The judge shrank as if the huge gesturing hand had struck him.
"You wouldn't dare," he began. "You were in that, too, deeper than----"
Again the governor interrupted him.
"Cut it out," he commanded. "I can reward, and I can punish. You are notgoing to do anything technically illegal; but, by the gods, you are goingto walk the line laid down for you. If you don't, I shall give thedocuments in the gerrymander affair to the papers the day after you fail.Now we'll go and see Falkland."
MacFarlane made one last protest.
"For God's sake, Bucks! spare me that. It is nothing less than the foulestcollusion between the judge, the counsel for the plaintiff--and thedevil!"
"Cut that out, too, and come along," said the governor, brutally; and bythe steadying help of the chair, the door-post and the wall of thecorridor, he led the way to the parlor suite on the floor below.
The conference in Falkland's rooms was chiefly a monologue with thesharp-spoken New York lawyer in the speaking part. When it was concludedthe judge took his leave abruptly, pleading the lateness of the hour andhis duties for the morrow. When he was gone the New Yorker began again.
"You won't want to be known in this, I take it," he said, nodding at thegovernor. "Mr. Hawk here will answer well enough for the legal part, buthow about the business end of it. Have you got a man you can trust?"
The governor's yellow eyebrows met in a meaning scowl.
"I've got a man I can hang, which is more to the purpose. It's Major JimGuilford. He lives here; want to meet him?"
"God forbid!" said Falkland, fervently. He rose and whipped himself intohis overcoat, turning to Hawk: "Have your young man get me a carriage, andsee to it that my special is ready to pull east when I give the word, willyou?"
Hawk went obediently, and the New Yorker had his final word with thegovernor alone.
"I think we understand each other perfectly," he said. "You are to havethe patronage: we are to pay for all actual betterments for which voucherscan be shown at the close of the deal. All we ask is that the stock bedepressed to the point agreed upon within the half-year."
"It's going to be done," said the governor, trying as he could to keep theeye-image of his fellow conspirator from multiplying itself by two.
"All right. Now as to the court affair. If it is managed exactly as I haveoutlined, there will be no trouble--and no recourse for the other fellows.When I say that, I'm leaving out your Supreme Court. Under certainconditions, if the defendant's hardship could be definitely shown, a writof _certiorari_ and _supersedeas_ might issue. How about that?"
The governor closed one eye slowly, the better to check the troublesomemultiplying process.
"The Supreme Court won't move in the matter. The ostensible reason will bethat the court is now two years behind its docket."
"And the real reason?"
"Of the three justices, one of them was elected on our ticket; another isa personal friend of Judge MacFarlane. The goods will be delivered."
"That's all, then; all but one word. Your judge is a weak brother.Notwithstanding all the pains I took to show him that his action would betechnically unassailable, he was ready to fly the track at any moment.Have you got him safe?"
Bucks held up one huge hand with the thumb and forefinger tightly pressedtogether.
"I've got him right there," he said. "If you and Hawk have got your papersin good shape, the thing will go through like a hog under a barbed-wirefence."
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